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Association of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index with resilience and prosociality of the offspring aged 6–7 years old: a population-based cohort study in Japan

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Abstract

The association between maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and child behavior problems has been widely researched, leaving a gap in understanding the positive aspects of children’s mental health. The present study aimed to investigate the association between maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and resilience and prosociality among 6–7 year-old children in Japan. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from the Adachi Child Health Impact of Living Difficulty (A-CHILD) study, a population-based study in 2017 and 2019 including all first-grade students in public schools in Adachi, Tokyo, Japan (n = 7328, response rate = 84.7%). Resilience and prosociality were measured by the Children’s Resilient Coping Scale and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire, respectively. Maternal pre-pregnancy weight and height were reported based on the Mother and Child Health Handbook, and BMI was categorized as underweight (BMI < 18.5), normal weight (BMI 18.5–24.9), overweight (BMI 25.0–29.9), and obesity (BMI ≥ 30). Linear regression models were employed to control for covariates. Maternal pre-pregnancy obesity was found to be negatively associated with child resilience (coefficient: − 3.29; 95% CI − 6.42–-0.15), while maternal underweight was negatively associated with child prosociality (coefficient: − 0.12; 95% CI − 0.24–-0.005) compared to mothers of pre-pregnancy normal BMI. Perinatal factors, such as gestational weight gain, gestational age, and birth weight, did not mediate the association. Our findings suggest that maternal pre-pregnancy obesity is linked to decreased resilience and maternal underweight is linked to decreased prosociality in children aged 6–7 years. Maintaining an appropriate BMI range before pregnancy may be crucial for enhancing resilience and prosociality of offspring.

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Data availability

Due to ethical restrictions, the data used to support the findings of this study cannot be made publicly available. However, they are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are particularly grateful to the staff members and the central office of Adachi City Hall for conducting the survey. We would like to thank everyone who participated in the surveys. In particular, we would also like to thank Mayor Yayoi Kondo, Mr. Syuichiro Akiu, Mr. Hideaki Otaka, and Ms. Yuko Baba of Adachi City Hall, all of whom contributed significantly to the completion of this study.

Funding

This study was supported by a Health Labour Sciences Research Grant, Comprehensive Research on Lifestyle Disease from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (H27-Jyunkankito-ippan-002), Research of Policy Planning and Evaluation from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (H29-Seisaku-Shitei-004), Innovative Research Program on Suicide Countermeasures (IRPSC), and Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 16H03276, 16K21669, 17J05974, 17K13245, 19K19310, 19K14029, 19K19309, 19K20109, 19K14172, 19J01614, and 19H04879), St. Luke’s Life Science Institute Grants, the Japan Health Foundation Grants, and Research-Aid (Designated Theme), Meiji Yasuda Life Foundation of Health and Welfare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Global Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, 113-8519, Japan

    Shuhei Terada & Takeo Fujiwara

  2. Department of Health Policy, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan

    Aya Isumi & Satomi Doi

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  1. Shuhei Terada
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  2. Aya Isumi
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  4. Takeo Fujiwara
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Study design and data collection were performed by AI, SD, and TF. The first draft of the manuscript was written by ST and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Takeo Fujiwara.

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The authors have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.

Ethical approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the ethics committee at the National Center for Child Health and Development (No. 1147) and Tokyo Medical and Dental University (No. M2016-284).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Terada, S., Isumi, A., Doi, S. et al. Association of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index with resilience and prosociality of the offspring aged 6–7 years old: a population-based cohort study in Japan. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 33, 861–869 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-023-02209-5

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