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Maternal Depressive Symptoms and the Risk of Overweight in Their Children

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Abstract

To examine the association between maternal depressive symptoms during early childhood of their offspring and later overweight in the children. Only children (n = 1,090) whose weights and heights were measured at least once for three time points (grades one, three and six) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study were included. Maternal depressive symptoms, defined as a Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) score of 16 or greater, were assessed using CES-D when the child was 1, 24, and 36 months. Childhood overweight was based on standardized height and weight measures taken during the interviews, and was defined according to appropriate CDC age- and sex-specific BMI percentiles. Generalized estimating equation was used to examine the impact of maternal depressive symptoms on the childhood overweight after adjusting for covariates. Compared to children of mothers without depression at any of the three time points, when children were one, 24 and 36 months of age, children of mothers with depression at all three time points were 1.695 times more likely to be overweight after adjusting for other child characteristics (95 % CI = 1.001–2.869). When further adjusted for maternal characteristics, children of mothers with depression at all three time points were 2.13 times more likely to be overweight (95 % CI = 1.05–4.31). Persistent maternal depressive symptoms may be associated with an increased risk of childhood overweight in their offspring. Children of mothers with depression may benefit from special attention in terms of obesity prevention.

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Abbreviations

NICHD SECCYD:

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development

CES-D:

Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale

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Acknowledgments

Some data from this study were presented orally at the 2010 Greg Alexander Outstanding Students Papers Session in Maternal and Child Health for the 138th American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Denver, November 8, 2010.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no disclosures of competing interests.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University, PO Box 70259, Johnson City, TN, 37614, USA

    Liang Wang, James L. Anderson, Tiejian Wu, Shimin Zheng & Xuefeng Liu

  2. Department of Psychology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA

    William T. Dalton III

  3. Department of Family Medicine, James H. Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA

    Tiejian Wu

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Xianchen Liu

  5. School of Public Health, Shandong University, Jinan, China

    Xianchen Liu

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  1. Liang Wang
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  2. James L. Anderson
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  3. William T. Dalton III
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  4. Tiejian Wu
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  5. Xianchen Liu
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  6. Shimin Zheng
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  7. Xuefeng Liu
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Correspondence to Liang Wang.

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Wang, L., Anderson, J.L., Dalton III, W.T. et al. Maternal Depressive Symptoms and the Risk of Overweight in Their Children. Matern Child Health J 17, 940–948 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-1080-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-1080-1

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