Effect of maternal pre-pregnancy underweight and average gestational weight gain on physical growth and intellectual development of early school-aged children

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of low maternal weight at pre-pregnancy and the average gestational weight gain on undernourished children and their intellectual development. From October 2012 to September 2013, we followed 1744 offspring of women who participated in a trial conducted from 2002 to 2006. Pregnant women recruited in the original trial could receive three prenatal health checks for free, at which maternal weight and height were measured. WISC-IV was used to estimate the intellectual development of children. Weight and height of both pregnant women and children were measured by trained anthropometrists using standard procedures. Having low maternal weight at pre-pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of undernutrition amongst children (underweight: OR = 2.02, 95%CI: 1.14–3.56, thinness: OR = 2.79, 95%CI: 1.50–5.17) and a decrease in verbal comprehension index (−2.70 points, 95%CI: −4.95–0.44) of children. The effect of average gestational weight gain on occurrences of underweight children (OR = 0.08, 95%CI: 0.01–0.55) was also found. We identified the effect of maternal pre-pregnancy underweight on impairment of the separate intellectual domains (verbal comprehension index) and increasing occurrence of undernourished children. Average gestational weight gain was positively associated with a decreased prevalence of underweight children but not with the intellectual development of children in rural China.