Examining maternal cardiometabolic markers in pregnancy on child emotional and behaviour trajectories : using growth curve models on a cohort study

Background Poor maternal cardiometabolic health in pregnancy is associated with negative effects on child health outcomes, but there is limited literature on child and adolescent socio-emotional outcomes. The study aims to investigate associations between maternal cardiometabolic markers during pregnancy with child and adolescence socio-emotional trajectories. Methods Growth curve models were run to examine how maternal cardiometabolic markers in pregnancy affected child socio-emotional trajectories from age 4 to 16. Models were adjusted for all pregnancy trimesters, maternal, child, and socioeconomic covariates. This study used the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (United Kingdom) cohort. Participants consisted of mother-child pairs (n=15,133). Maternal predictors of fasting glucose, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), and body mass index (BMI) were taken from each pregnancy trimester (T1, T2, T3). Child outcomes included emotional problems, conduct problems, and hyperactivity problems from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results Fully adjusted models showed significant associations between elevated T1 fasting glucose and increased conduct problems, higher T1 BMI and increased hyperactivity problems, lowered T1 HDL and decreased hyperactivity problems, and elevated T2 triglycerides and increased hyperactivity problems. Conclusions Maternal cardiometabolic risk is associated with conduct and hyperactivity outcomes from age 4 to 16. This study suggests that maternal markers of fasting glucose, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides during pregnancy could be added as supplements for clinical measures of risk when predicting child and adolescence’s socio-emotional trajectories.