Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Thyroid hormones are crucial developmental factors, and thyroid disease in pregnant women is a concern. Overweight and obesity are also important health concerns, and we hypothesized that in utero exposure to maternal thyroid disease could programme the foetus to development of adiposity.
DESIGN: Cohort and case-cohort studies.
PARTICIPANTS: Pregnant women from the Danish National Birth Cohort and their 7-year-old children.
MEASUREMENTS: Maternal thyroid disease (hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism) was assessed from registrations of diagnoses and treatment (n = 71 706) or from the measurement of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in a stored blood sample from the early pregnancy (n = 7624). Maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and child BMI at 7 years of age were used to define overweight and obesity, and associations were evaluated using regression models adjusting for potential confounders.
RESULTS: No association was found between maternal thyroid disease in pregnancy and child overweight (hyperthyroidism: adjusted risk ratio (aRR): 1.02 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.58-1.82); hypothyroidism: 1.31 (0.86-1.97)) or obesity (hyperthyroidism: 0.96 (0.53-1.75); hypothyroidism: 1.25 (0.76-2.05)). On the other hand, pregnant women with hypothyroidism in early pregnancy had a higher risk of being overweight (aRR: 1.20 (95% CI: 1.03; 1.41)) and obese (1.45 (1.07; 1.96)), whereas women with hyperthyroidism had a lower risk of being overweight (0.79 (0.64; 0.98)).
CONCLUSIONS: Results provide no evidence that maternal thyroid disease in pregnancy programmes adiposity in the child, but corroborate an association between maternal thyroid disease and adiposity in the mother.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Clinical Endocrinology |
Volume | 94 |
Issue number | 3 |
Pages (from-to) | 484-493 |
Number of pages | 10 |
ISSN | 0300-0664 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2021 |
Bibliographical note
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Keywords
- BMI
- foetal programming
- hyperthyroidism
- hypothyroidism
- obesity
- overweight
- pregnancy