Associations of maternal educational level, proximity to green space during pregnancy, and gestational diabetes with body mass index from infancy to early adulthood: A proof-of-concept federated analysis in 18 birth cohorts

Abstract

International sharing of cohort data for research is important and challenging. We explored the feasibility of multicohort federated analyses by examining associations between 3 pregnancy exposures (maternal education, exposure to green vegetation, and gestational diabetes) and offspring body mass index (BMI) from infancy to age 17 years. We used data from 18 cohorts (n = 206,180 mother-child pairs) from the EU Child Cohort Network and derived BMI at ages 0-1, 2-3, 4-7, 8-13, and 14-17 years. Associations were estimated using linear regression via 1-stage individual participant data meta-analysis using DataSHIELD. Associations between lower maternal education and higher child BMI emerged from age 4 and increased with age (difference in BMI z score comparing low with high education, at age 2-3 years = 0.03 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.00, 0.05), at 4-7 years = 0.16 (95% CI: 0.14, 0.17), and at 8-13 years = 0.24 (95% CI: 0.22, 0.26)). Gestational diabetes was positively associated with BMI from age 8 years (BMI z score difference = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.25) but not at younger ages; however, associations attenuated towards the null when restricted to cohorts that measured gestational diabetes via universal screening. Exposure to green vegetation was weakly associated with higher BMI up to age 1 year but not at older ages. Opportunities of cross-cohort federated analyses are discussed.

RAS ID

66000

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

5-1-2024

Volume

193

Issue

5

Funding Information

European Union's Horizon / European Research Council / Lundbeck Foundation / National institute for Health Research / The Research Council of Norway / UK Medical Research Council / UK National Institute for Health Research /

PubMed ID

37856700

School

Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute

Grant Number

733206, ERC-2014-CoG-648916, R264-2017-3099, NIHR200166, 262700

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Copyright

subscription content

Publisher

Oxford Academic

Comments

Cadman, T., Elhakeem, A., Vinther, J. L., Avraam, D., Carrasco, P., Calas, L., ... & Lawlor, D. (2024). Associations of Maternal Educational Level, Proximity to Green Space During Pregnancy, and Gestational Diabetes With Body Mass Index From Infancy to Early Adulthood: A Proof-of-Concept Federated Analysis in 18 Birth Cohorts. American journal of epidemiology, 193(5), 753-763. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwad206

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1093/aje/kwad206