The bereavement of a loved one just before or during pregnancy could lead to overweight or even obesity in the child in adulthood.
Mom’s stress during pregnancy could increase the child’s risk of being overweight into adulthood. This is what a study from Aarhus University in Denmark suggests. These results could contribute to a better understanding of certain forms of obesity and overweight.
While previous work has already shown that unborn children exposed to very high levels of stress during their fetal life have an increased risk of being overweight between the ages of 10 and 13, this analysis, published in the journal Plos One , confirms this association which lasts until adulthood.
A risk of overweight increased by 15%
To carry out their work, these researchers analyzed data concerning a Danish cohort of 119,908 men born between 1976 and 1993. The latter having been examined as part of their military service between 2006 and 2011. Among them, 4,813 were born. mothers bereaved by the death of a close relative between 12 months before conception and the birth of the child.
Thus, the scientists compared the weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) of mothers who had been exposed to those of mothers who had not undergone this intense stress.
Result, even if the median BMI was similar in the two groups of men, the authors note, on the other hand, a difference concerning the prevalence of overweight and obesity. In fact, in the group exposed to stress, 33.3% of the men were overweight (30% in the unexposed) and 9.8% were obese versus 8.5% in the others. In the end, the authors conclude that exposure to this intense stress linked to the death of a loved one in the 6 months before conception and pregnancy increases the child’s risk of overweight by 15%. More seriously, the men in the study born to mothers who had experienced the death of the child’s biological father before birth had a doubled risk of obesity.
Stressed fetuses more vulnerable to weight gain
“Overall, our results indicate that stress can create programming in the unborn child that makes them more vulnerable to postpartum weight gain,” says Lena Hohwü of the Department of Public Health at the University of Duchess. ‘Aarhus, co-author of the study. So while we still have a lot of research to do in this area, we have added a small stone in understanding why we are witnessing an obesity epidemic ”.
The authors also recall that in Denmark, one in five children is overweight, and that most of them will remain overweight into adulthood. Although in this study the main indicator of severe stress suffered by pregnant women was the death of a loved one, fortunately a rare event, the researchers specify that they now intend to study the impact of stress more generally. by analyzing, for example, that generated by a divorce.
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