Associations of prenatal exposure to impaired glucose tolerance with eating in the absence of hunger in early adolescence

Objective: Exposure to impaired gestational glucose tolerance has been shown to have sex-specific associations with offspring obesity risk, perhaps by affecting the development of appetite regulation. We examined the extent to which prenatal exposure to impaired glucose tolerance was associated with eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) in early adolescent offspring, and in turn, whether EAH was cross-sectionally associated with body composition. Methods: We included data from 1097 adolescents participating in Project Viva, a pre-birth longitudinal cohort. We obtained the results of two-stage prenatal glycemic screening (50 g glucose challenge test, followed if abnormal by 100 g oral glucose tolerance test) at 26–28 weeks of gestation, and categorized mothers as having normal glucose tolerance, isolated hyperglycemia (IH, n = 92, 8.4%), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, n = 36, 3.3%), or gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM, n = 52, 4.7%). At a median age of 13 years, offspring reported on two modified items of the Eating in the Absence of Hunger in Children and Adolescents questionnaire, we measured height and weight, and performed dual X-ray absorptiometry scans to assess fat and fat-free mass. We used multivariable linear regression analyses adjusted for sociodemographic and prenatal covariates, including maternal pre-pregnancy BMI. Results: On a ten-point scale, the mean (SD) EAH score was 4.4 points (SD = 1.5) in boys and 4.4 (SD = 1.4) in girls. In girls, prenatal exposure to both IH and IGT was associated with more EAH compared with normal glucose tolerance (e.g., for IH: 0.56 points, 95% CI: 0.17, 0.96), whereas in boys, prenatal exposure to IGT was associated with less EAH (–0.81 points, 95% CI: −1.41, −0.21). We did not observe an association between exposure to GDM and EAH, nor did we observe associations between EAH and body composition in early adolescence. Conclusions: These findings suggest sex-specific associations of exposure to impaired gestational glucose tolerance with offspring EAH in early adolescence.

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