ArticlePediatric research2023
Maternal stress and early childhood BMI among US children from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program.
Article in Pediatric research, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03061890 (Developmental Impact of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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.
Developmental Impact of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Exposures: Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO)
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations of Hair Biomarkers with Height, Weight, and Body Mass Index in Preschool Children.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Impact of Maternal Nutritional Status and Mental Health on Children with Obesity: Relationship Between Anthropometric Parameters, Food Addiction, and Stress.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
21 authors at 20 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWe aimed to understand the association between maternal stress in the first year of life and childhood body mass index (BMI) from 2 to 4 years of age in a large, prospective United States-based consortium of cohorts.
methodsWe used data from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes program. The main exposure was maternal stress in the first year of life measured with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). The main outcome was the first childhood BMI percentile after age 2 until age 4 years. We used an adjusted linear mixed effects model to examine associations between BMI and PSS quartile.
resultsThe mean BMI percentile in children was 59.8 (SD 30) measured at 3.0 years (SD 1) on average. In both crude models and models adjusted for maternal BMI, age, race, ethnicity, infant birthweight, and health insurance status, no linear associations were observed between maternal stress and child BMI.
conclusionsAmong 1694 maternal-infant dyads, we found no statistically significant relationships between maternal perceived stress in the first year of life and child BMI after 2 through 4 years. IMPACT: Although existing literature suggests relationships between parental stress and childhood BMI, we found no linear associations between maternal stress in the first year of life and childhood BMI at 2-4 years of age among participants in ECHO cohorts. Higher maternal stress was significantly associated with Hispanic ethnicity, Black race, and public health insurance. Our analysis of a large, nationally representative sample challenges assumptions that maternal stress in the first year of life, as measured by a widely used scale, is associated with offspring BMI.
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Registered trials
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