Maternal antibiotic use during pregnancy and childhood obesity at age 5 years.

View Abstract

OBJECTIVE

The benefits of antibiotic treatment during pregnancy are immediate, but there may be long-term risks to the developing child. Prior studies show an association between early life antibiotics and obesity, but few have examined this risk during pregnancy.

SUBJECTS

To evaluate the association of maternal antibiotic exposure during pregnancy on childhood BMI-z at 5 years, we conducted a retrospective cohort analysis. Using electronic health record data from seven health systems in PCORnet, a national distributed clinical research network, we included children with same-day height and weight measures who could be linked to mothers with vital measurements during pregnancy. The primary independent variable was maternal outpatient antibiotic prescriptions during pregnancy (any versus none). We examined dose response (number of antibiotic episodes), spectrum and class of antibiotics, and antibiotic episodes by trimester. The primary outcome was child age- and sex-specific BMI-z at age 5 years.

RESULTS

The final sample was 53,320 mother-child pairs. During pregnancy, 29.9% of mothers received antibiotics. In adjusted models, maternal outpatient antibiotic prescriptions during pregnancy were not associated with child BMI-z at age 5 years (β = 0.00, 95% CI -0.03, 0.02). When evaluating timing during pregnancy, dose-response, spectrum and class of antibiotics, there were no associations of maternal antibiotics with child BMI-z at age 5 years.

CONCLUSION

In this large observational cohort, provision of antibiotics during pregnancy was not associated with childhood BMI-z at 5 years.

Abbreviation
Int J Obes (Lond)
Publication Date
2019-01-22
Pubmed ID
30670848
Medium
Print-Electronic
Full Title
Maternal antibiotic use during pregnancy and childhood obesity at age 5 years.
Authors
Heerman WJ, Daley MF, Boone-Heinonen J, Rifas-Shiman SL, Bailey LC, Forrest CB, Young JG, Gillman MW, Horgan CE, Janicke DM, Jenter C, Kharbanda EO, Lunsford D, Messito MJ, Toh S, Block JP,