ReviewThe lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology2017
Influence of maternal obesity on the long-term health of offspring.
Review in The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 605 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
605 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 983 citations in OpenAlex.
- Maternal Overnutrition in Pregnancy Predicts Greater Body Mass Index Gains in Offspring by Early Midlife: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- Validity of non-traditional measures of obesity compared to total body fat across the life course: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Pooled it
- Obesity and asthma during pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2025Pooled it
- Associations between food insecurity in high-income countries and pregnancy outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2024Pooled it
- A randomized digital behavioral intervention for prenatal and postpartum weight outcomes in women with overweight or obesity: the GROWell trial.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Trial
- Effects of a Mobile Health Intervention on Weight Control and Pregnancy Outcomes in Overweight Pregnant Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Maternal and child health journal · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Associations between maternal diet, family eating habits and preschool children's dietary patterns: insights from the UPBEAT trial.Nutrition journal · 2024Trial
- Gestational cardiovascular health and adverse pregnancy outcomes: a prospective cohort study in China.Annals of medicine · 2026Article
- Maternal obesity imprints methylation marks in oocytes to drive intergenerational metabolic dysfunction.Nature metabolism · 2026Article
- Butyrate counteracts maternal obesity-induced cardiac defects by promoting PLEKHG3-actin binding.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Exploring the associations of overweight and obesity with pregnancy outcomes in type 1 and type 2 diabetes: An Australian retrospective cohort study.Journal of diabetes investigation · 2026Article
- Beyond Deterministic Fetal Programming: Intrauterine Exposures and the Multifactorial Origins of Adiposity.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Review
- Associations between maternal adiposity during pregnancy and neonatal brain cortical development.NeuroImage · 2026Article
- Maternal metformin treatment in obese pregnant dams normalizes neonatal sensory-motor reflexes.Molecular and cellular pediatrics · 2026Article
- Preconception maternal body mass index and offspring sex ratio in intrauterine insemination cycles.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2026Article
- Maternal body mass index in early pregnancy and offspring mortality up to early adulthood: A nationwide cohort study.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- Maternal Body Mass Index, Gestational Weight Gain, and Cardiovascular Disease in Offspring.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Targeting metabolism to protect fertility and healthy pregnancy with SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1RAs.Current opinion in physiology · 2026Article
545 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 7 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In addition to immediate implications for pregnancy complications, increasing evidence implicates maternal obesity as a major determinant of offspring health during childhood and later adult life. Observational studies provide evidence for effects of maternal obesity on her offspring's risks of obesity, coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and asthma. Maternal obesity could also lead to poorer cognitive performance and increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, including cerebral palsy. Preliminary evidence suggests potential implications for immune and infectious-disease-related outcomes. Insights from experimental studies support causal effects of maternal obesity on offspring outcomes, which are mediated at least partly through changes in epigenetic processes, such as alterations in DNA methylation, and perhaps through alterations in the gut microbiome. Although the offspring of obese women who lose weight before pregnancy have a reduced risk of obesity, few controlled intervention studies have been done in which maternal obesity is reversed and the consequences for offspring have been examined. Because the long-term effects of maternal obesity could have profound public health implications, there is an urgent need for studies on causality, underlying mechanisms, and effective interventions to reverse the epidemic of obesity in women of childbearing age and to mitigate consequences for offspring.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.