Parental Prepuberty Overweight and Offspring Lung Function
Marianne Lønnebotn1,2, Lucia Calciano3, Ane Johannessen1
1Centre for International Health, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway.
Insights
Paternal overweight before puberty may negatively impact sons' lung function, specifically reducing forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC). This effect is partly mediated by sons' adult height, not prepubertal weight.
Area of Science:
- Reproductive Health
- Pediatric Health
- Pulmonology
- Genetics and Epigenetics
Background:
- Parental overweight during puberty is linked to offspring asthma.
- The impact of parental overweight on adult offspring lung function remains understudied.
- Lung function is a critical indicator of respiratory and overall health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate potential causal effects of parental overweight on adult offspring lung function.
- To examine paternal and maternal lines separately.
- To explore the role of offspring sex as a moderator and offspring height/weight as mediators.
Main Methods:
- Utilized counterfactual-based multi-group mediation analyses.
- Included 929 offspring (aged 18-54) and their parents (308 fathers, 388 mothers).
- Assessed offspring sex, prepubertal overweight, and adult height as potential mediators/moderators.
- Addressed unknown confounding using simulation analyses.
Main Results:
- Fathers' prepubertal overweight showed a negative indirect effect on sons' forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC), mediated by sons' adult height.
- Fathers' prepubertal overweight also had a negative direct effect on sons' FVC.
- No significant effects of mothers' prepubertal overweight on offspring lung function were observed.
- Effects on FEV1/FVC ratio were not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
- Paternal overweight, beginning before puberty, appears to causally reduce FEV1 and FVC in adult sons.
- The observed effects are partly mediated by sons' adult height.
- Maternal overweight did not demonstrate a significant impact on offspring lung function in this study.
Abstract:
In a recent study we found that fathers' but not mothers' onset of overweight in puberty was associated with asthma in adult offspring. The potential impact on offspring's adult lung function, a key marker of general and respiratory health, has not been studied. We investigated the potential causal effects of parents' overweight on adult offspring's lung function within the paternal and maternal lines. We included 929 offspring (aged 18-54, 54% daughters) of 308 fathers and 388 mothers (aged 40-66). Counterfactual-based multi-group mediation analyses by offspring's sex (potential moderator) were used, with offspring's prepubertal overweight and/or adult height as potential mediators. Unknown confounding was addressed by simulation analyses. Fathers' overweight before puberty had a negative indirect effect, mediated through sons' height, on sons' forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) (beta (95% CI): -144 (-272, -23) mL) and forced vital capacity (FVC) (beta (95% CI): -210 (-380, -34) mL), and a negative direct effect on sons' FVC (beta (95% CI): -262 (-501, -9) mL); statistically significant effects on FEV1/FVC were not observed. Mothers' overweight before puberty had neither direct nor indirect effects on offspring's lung function. Fathers' overweight starting before puberty appears to cause lower FEV1 and FVC in their future sons. The effects were partly mediated through sons' adult height but not through sons' prepubertal overweight.
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