ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2024
Maternal plasma cortisol's effect on offspring birth weight: a Mendelian Randomisation study.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Sleep During Pregnancy and Offspring Outcomes From Infancy to Childhood: A Systematic Review.Biopsychosocial science and medicine · 2025Pooled it
- A prospective study of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), stress, and birth size in a cohort of U.S. Black women.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2026Article
- Human milk cortisol is inversely associated with infant BMI and mediates the association between maternal plasma and infant salivary cortisol concentrations.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Observational
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundObservational studies and randomized controlled trials have found evidence that higher maternal circulating cortisol levels in pregnancy are associated with lower offspring birth weight. However, it is possible that the observational associations are due to residual confounding.
methodsWe performed two-sample Mendelian Randomisation (MR) using a single genetic variant (rs9989237) associated with morning plasma cortisol (GWAS; sample 1; N = 25,314). The association between this maternal genetic variant and offspring birth weight, adjusted for fetal genotype, was obtained from the published EGG Consortium and UK Biobank meta-analysis (GWAS; sample 2; N = up to 406,063) and a Wald ratio was used to estimate the causal effect. We also performed an alternative analysis using all GWAS reported cortisol variants that takes account of linkage disequilibrium. We also tested the genetic variant's effect on pregnancy cortisol and performed PheWas to search for potential pleiotropic effects.
resultsThe estimated effect of maternal circulating cortisol on birth weight was a 50 gram (95% CI, -109 to 10) lower birth weight per 1 SD higher log-transformed maternal circulating cortisol levels, using a single variant. The alternative analysis gave similar results (-33 grams (95% CI, -77 to 11)). The effect of the cortisol variant on pregnancy cortisol was 2-fold weaker than in the original GWAS, and evidence was found of pleiotropy.
conclusionsOur findings provide some evidence that higher maternal morning plasma cortisol causes lower birth weight. Identification of more independent genetic instruments for morning plasma cortisol are necessary to explore the potential bias identified.
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.