Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 163, Issue 2, August 2013, Pages 549-554.e1
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original Article
Maternal Height and Child Growth Patterns

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2013.02.002Get rights and content
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open access

Objective

To examine associations between maternal height and child growth during 4 developmental periods: intrauterine, birth to age 2 years, age 2 years to mid-childhood (MC), and MC to adulthood.

Study design

Pooled analysis of maternal height and offspring growth using 7630 mother–child pairs from 5 birth cohorts (Brazil, Guatemala, India, the Philippines, and South Africa). We used conditional height measures that control for collinearity in height across periods. We estimated associations between maternal height and offspring growth using multivariate regression models adjusted for household income, child sex, birth order, and study site.

Results

Maternal height was associated with birth weight and with both height and conditional height at each age examined. The strongest associations with conditional heights were for adulthood and 2 years of age. A 1-cm increase in maternal height predicted a 0.024 (95% CI: 0.021-0.028) SD increase in offspring birth weight, a 0.037 (95% CI: 0.033-0.040) SD increase in conditional height at 2 years, a 0.025 (95% CI: 0.021-0.029 SD increase in conditional height in MC, and a 0.044 (95% CI: 0.040-0.048) SD increase in conditional height in adulthood. Short mothers (<150.1 cm) were more likely to have a child who was stunted at 2 years (prevalence ratio = 3.20 (95% CI: 2.80-3.60) and as an adult (prevalence ratio = 4.74, (95% CI: 4.13-5.44). There was no evidence of heterogeneity by site or sex.

Conclusion

Maternal height influences offspring linear growth over the growing period. These influences likely include genetic and non-genetic factors, including nutrition-related intergenerational influences on growth that prevent the attainment of genetic height potential in low- and middle-income countries.

COHORTS
Consortium on Health Orientated Research in Transitional Societies
HAZ
Height-for-age z-scores
LMICs
Low- and middle-income countries
MC
Mid-childhood
MI
Multiple imputations
PR
Prevalence ratio
SES
Socioeconomic status

Cited by (0)

Funding support and conflict of interest information are available at www.jpeds.com (Appendix 2).

List of members of the COHORTS Group is available at www.jpeds.com (Appendix 1).