AUTHOR=Liu Shufang , Zhou Bo , Wang Yunfeng , Wang Kundi , Zhang Zhixin , Niu Wenquan 

TITLE=Pre-pregnancy Maternal Weight and Gestational Weight Gain Increase the Risk for Childhood Asthma and Wheeze: An Updated Meta-Analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pediatrics

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pediatrics/articles/10.3389/fped.2020.00134

DOI=10.3389/fped.2020.00134

ISSN=2296-2360

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> Mounting evidence suggests that childhood asthma is closely associated with maternal weight before pregnancy and gestational weight gain (GWG), yet the results are not often reproducible.</p><p><bold>Objectives:</bold> We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis, aiming to evaluate the association of pre-pregnancy maternal obesity or overweight and high GWG with the risk for childhood asthma and wheeze.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Literature search, quality assessment, and data extraction were completed independently and in duplicate. Effect-size estimates are expressed as odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI).</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Twenty-two observational studies involving 145,574 mother-child pairs were meta-analyzed. In overall analyses, maternal obesity or overweight in pre-pregnancy significantly increased the risk of both childhood asthma and wheeze (adjusted OR: 1.41 and 1.13, 95% CI: 1.26–1.59 and 1.07–1.20, both <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001). Per 1 kg/m<sup>2</sup> increment in maternal body mass index was associated with a significantly increased risk of childhood asthma and wheeze (adjusted OR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.02-1.03, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001). Compared with normal GWG, very high GWG (adjusted OR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.04-1.47, <italic>p</italic>: 0.018), moderate high GWG (adjusted OR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.04-1.21, <italic>p</italic>: 0.004), and very low GWG (adjusted OR: 1.26, 95% CI: 1.08-1.47, <italic>p</italic>: 0.004) increased the risk of childhood asthma and wheeze. There was a low probability of publication bias.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> Our findings indicate that both pre-pregnancy maternal obesity or overweight and very to moderate high or low GWG render their offspring susceptible to a significantly increased risk of having childhood asthma and wheeze.</p>