Maternal complications in pregnancy and wheezing in early childhood: a pooled analysis of 14 birth cohorts.
BACKGROUND
Evidence on the effect of maternal complications in pregnancy on wheezing in offspring is still insufficient.


METHODS
A pooled analysis was performed on individual participant data from fourteen European birth cohorts to assess the relationship between several maternal pregnancy complications and wheezing symptoms in the offspring. Exposures of interest included hypertension and preeclampsia, diabetes, as well as pre-pregnancy overweight (body mass index between 25 and 29.9) and obesity (body mass index ≥ 30) compared with normal weight (body mass index between 18.5 and 24.9). Outcomes included both ever and recurrent wheezing from birth up to 12-24 months of age. Cohort-specific crude and adjusted risk ratios (RR) were calculated using log-binomial regression models and then pooled using a random effects model.


RESULTS
The study included 85509 subjects. Cohort-specific prevalence of ever wheezing varied from 20.0% to 47.3%, and of recurrent wheezing from 3.0% to 14.3%. Adjusted pooled RR for ever and recurrent wheezing were: 1.02 (95% CI: 0.98-1.06) and 1.20 (95% CI: 0.98-1.47) for hypertensive disorders; 1.09 (95% CI: 1.01-1.18) and 1.23 (95% CI: 1.07-1.43) for preeclampsia; 1.04 (95% CI: 0.97-1.13) and 1.24 (95% CI: 0.86-1.79) for diabetes; 1.08 (95% CI: 1.05-1.11) and 1.19 (95% CI: 1.12-1.26) for overweight; 1.12 (95% CI: 1.08-1.17) and 1.16 (95% CI: 0.97-1.39) for obesity. No heterogeneity was found in RR estimates among the cohorts, except for diabetes and recurrent wheezing (P=0.027).


CONCLUSIONS
Preeclampsia, maternal pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity are associated with an increase risk of wheezing in the offspring.
['Zugna|Daniela|D|', 'Galassi|Claudia|C|', 'Annesi-Maesano|Isabella|I|', 'Baïz|Nour|N|', 'Barros|Henrique|H|', 'Basterrechea|Mikel|M|', 'Correia|Sofia|S|', 'Duijts|Liesbeth|L|', 'Esplugues|Ana|A|', 'Fantini|Maria Pia|MP|', 'Forastiere|Francesco|F|', 'Gascon|Mireia|M|', 'Gori|Davide|D|', 'Inskip|Hazel|H|', 'Larsen|Pernille S|PS|', 'Mommers|Monique|M|', 'Nybo Andersen|Anne-Marie|AM|', 'Penders|John|J|', 'Petersen|Maria S|MS|', 'Pike|Katharine|K|', 'Porta|Daniela|D|', 'Sonnenschein-van der Voort|Agnes|A|', 'Steuerwald|Ulrike|U|', 'Sunyer|Jordi|J|', 'Torrent|Maties|M|', 'Vrijheid|Martine|M|', 'Richiardi|Lorenzo|L|', 'Rusconi|Franca|F|']
D001724:Birth Weight D015992:Body Mass Index D016640:Diabetes, Gestational D005260:Female D006801:Humans D006973:Hypertension D009765:Obesity D050177:Overweight D011225:Pre-Eclampsia D011247:Pregnancy D011248:Pregnancy Complications D015995:Prevalence D012135:Respiratory Sounds D012307:Risk Factors
Overweight Obesity Gestational diabetes Pre-eclampsia Pregnancy induced hypertension