TOPLINE:

Maternal overnutrition was associated with increased odds of obesity in offspring; this association persisted into adulthood and did not diminish after the age of 30 years, with more pronounced effects observed in women than in men.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of maternal overnutrition on overweight or obesity in adult offspring and to assess whether this association persisted into adulthood and differed by offspring age and sex.
• A total of 29 English language studies, predominantly prospective cohort studies (n = 22), comprising 430,764 mother-offspring pairs published between 2001 and 2024 were included after a literature search across various databases. The mean age of the offspring at outcome assessment ranged from 18 to 72 years.
• Indicators of maternal overnutrition were prepregnancy BMI (assessed just before pregnancy or at the first antenatal visit) and excessive gestational weight gain, and offspring adiposity measures included BMI, waist circumference, and body fat percentage during adulthood.
• Maternal BMI values were categorised into three different groups: overweight or obesity (prepregnancy BMI > 25), overweight (25 < prepregnancy BMI ≤ 30), and obesity (prepregnancy BMI > 30). The risk for bias was assessed using a validated tool.

TAKEAWAY:

• Offspring of mothers with obesity and overweight had 4.04-fold and 2.55-fold higher odds of overweight and obesity, respectively, than those of mothers with normal weight (P < .001 for both). The odds of obesity were fivefold (P < .001) and 2.96-fold (P = .009) higher in offspring of mothers with obesity and overweight, respectively.
• Excessive gestational weight gain was associated with 35% higher odds of overweight or obesity than adequate gestational weight gain in adult offspring, and the association was stronger in offspring with a mean age between 30 and 45 years than in those with a mean age between 18 and 30 years (P = .033).
• Women offspring of mothers with prepregnancy BMI above 25 showed a 1.17 kg/m² increase in BMI compared with those of mothers with normal weight (P = .018).
• Offspring of mothers with prepregnancy BMI above 25 had higher body fat percentages than those of mothers with normal weight (mean difference [MD], 3.05%; P < .001). The mean waist circumference was also increased (MD, 9.43 cm; P = .005), particularly in women.

IN PRACTICE:

"Our findings highlight that optimizing preconceptional body weight and controlling GWG [gestational weight gain] are crucial, as even a 1 kg/m² increase in maternal ppBMI [prepregnancy BMI] results in measurable increases in adult offspring BMI and body fat percentage, whereas excessive GWG independently raises the risk of obesity. These results underscore the importance of implementing targeted nutritional and lifestyle interventions during pregnancy to reduce long-term obesity risk at the population level," the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Szimonetta Eitmann, Institute for Translational Medicine, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary. It was published online on May 05, 2026, in Obesity Reviews.

LIMITATIONS:

Meta-analysis included five retrospective studies, which may have introduced the risk for bias. High dropout rates (> 20%) in prospective studies likely introduced potential selection bias into the findings. Only 17% of the included studies were adjusted for offspring socioeconomic factors, reflecting the limited availability of such data in long-term follow-up studies.

DISCLOSURES:

This study received support from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary. The authors declared having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.