ArticleInternational journal of obesity (2005)2020
Maternal infection and antibiotic use in pregnancy and the risk of childhood obesity in offspring: a birth cohort study.
Article in International journal of obesity (2005), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk Factors in the First 1000 Days of Life Associated With Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review and Risk Factor Quality Assessment.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- The association between prenatal and early-life antibiotic use and obesity at 4-5 years in the Born in Bradford birth cohort.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Maternal allostatic load in pregnancy is prospectively associated with child adiposity and metabolic function across infancy and early childhood.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Shaping oral and intestinal microbiota and the immune system during the first 1,000 days of life.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Review
- Antibiotic Exposure and Childhood Overweight/Obesity: Evidence from Epidemiological and Experimental Studies.Current pharmaceutical design · 2025Review
- Offspring cardiometabolic outcomes and postnatal growth trajectories after exposure to maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2024Article
- Impact of prenatal maternal dietary exclusion on childhood obesity and overweight risk.PloS one · 2024Article
- A nationwide longitudinal investigation on the role of prenatal exposure to infectious diseases on the onset of chronic conditions in children and adolescents in Brazil.Wellcome open research · 2024Article
- Assessing the impact of pregnancy and birth factors on the maternal and infant microbiota.Microbiome research reports · 2023Article
- Association between maternal antibiotic exposure during pregnancy and childhood obesity in the Japan Environment and Children's Study.Pediatric obesity · 2022Article
- The impact of early life antibiotic use on atopic and metabolic disorders: Meta-analyses of recent insights.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
objectivesThe reported association between maternal antibiotic use and childhood obesity, if true, could change obstetric practice. However, it is unclear whether the reported association was due to antibiotics, or underlying infection or both. To examine the independent contributions of maternal infection and antibiotic use separately, we conducted a birth cohort study among Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) members. SUBJECTS/
methodsThe study consisted of 145,393 mother-child dyads. The KPNC electronic medical records provided data on maternal infections, antibiotic use during pregnancy, and longitudinal anthropometric measurements throughout childhood. Obesity was defined by BMI using CDC criteria. Mixed effects logistic regression for repeated measurements was used to analyze multiple BMI measurements per child (five measurements per child on average).
resultsAfter controlling for confounders using propensity score methodology, there was no increased risk associated with maternal antibiotic use during pregnancy once underlying infection was controlled for: OR = 0.97 (95% CI: 0.92-1.01). There was also no association with timing of use or use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, nor a dose-response relationship. In contrast, maternal untreated infection (without antibiotic use) during pregnancy was associated with a statistically significant risk of childhood obesity compared with mothers without infection: odds ratio (OR) = 1.09 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03-1.16). The association was stronger for GBS positive infection (OR = 1.16) than GBS negative infections (OR = 1.08). These results were further confirmed by a discordant sibling study. This discordant sibling study allowed additional control of unmeasured confounders including genetic, maternal intrauterine, and familiar factors. The consistent findings from this sibling study enhances the reproducibility of our findings.
conclusionsIt is maternal infection, NOT antibiotic use, during pregnancy that is associated with increased risk of childhood obesity. While use of antibiotics should always be judicious, in the context of preventing childhood obesity, the focus should be on reducing maternal infections during pregnancy.
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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.