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Pharmacologic sex hormones associated with higher risk for offspring obesity
Exposure to pharmacologic sex hormones in utero could increase the likelihood of childhood obesity, according to research published in Obesity.
It remains unclear whether contemporary lower dose oral contraceptive formulations would have similar associations, following a study at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in North Carolina.
Elizabeth T. Jensen, MPH, PhD, and Matthew P. Longnecker, MD, ScD, of the Epidemiology Branch at the institute, looked at 34,419 children from the multicenter prospective Collaborative Perinatal Project that looked at pregnant women and their offspring from 1959 to 1966.
Using height and weight data at age 7 years, the researchers applied generalized linear models to estimate adjusted odds ratio for overweight or obesity (≥85th percentile) and obesity (≥95th percentile) based on perinatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES), which is no longer in use, or an oral contraceptive.
DES was positively associated with children being overweight or obese and obese for all trimesters of initiation. The association with obesity was strongest when exposure began between 3 and 4 months (aOR=2.8; 95% CI, 1.3–6.3).
Oral contraceptive use in the first trimester was also positively associated with offspring being overweight or obese and obese. Exposure during the first 2 months of pregnancy showed the strongest association with obesity (aOR=2.0; 95% CI, 1.1–3.7).
“Future studies, with a larger number of births followed would benefit from additional exposure details to estimate the association with greater precision and explore possible dose-response relationships,” the researchers wrote. “Furthermore, future studies would benefit from assessing the association with contemporary, lower dose oral contraceptive formulations.”
Disclosure: The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.