Background: The association of maternal parity, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) with childhood weight status has been well studied; however, little is known about these factors with respect to the rate of weight changes in early childhood.
Methods: This study was based on a prospective longitudinal study. The follow-up surveys were conducted at the ages of 1, 3, 6, 8, 12, and 18 months. Child weight was investigated twice at each wave. Data on maternal parity, pre-pregnancy weight and height were collected at baseline. The latent growth curve model was used to examine the effects of interested predictors on the trajectory of weight in early childhood.
Results: Finally, 893 eligible mother-child pairs were drawn from the cohort. In adjusted models, multiparas were associated with higher birth weight (β = 0.103) and slower weight change rate of children (β = -0.028). Pre-conception BMI (β = 0.034) and GWG (β = 0.014) played important roles in the initial status of child weight but did not have effects on the rate of weight changes of the child.
Conclusions: Multiparous pregnancy is associated with both higher mean birth weight and slower weight-growth velocity in early childhood, while pregravid maternal BMI and GWG are only related to the birth weight.
Keywords: child weight; gestational weight gain; parity; pre-pregnancy body mass index; trajectory.