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Summary: Background: Prevalence of childhood obesity is high in developed countries, and there is a growing concern regarding increasing socio‐economic disparities. Objectives: To assess trends in the prevalence of overweight, obesity and extreme obesity among New Zealand 4‐year olds, and whether these differ by socio‐economic and ethnic groupings. Methods: A national screening programme, the B4 School Check, collected height and weight data for 75–92% of New Zealand 4‐year‐old children (n = 317 298) between July 2010 and June 2016. Children at, or above, the 85th, 95th and 99.7th percentile for age and sex adjusted body mass index (according to World Health Organization standards) were classified as overweight, obese and extremely obese, respectively. Prevalence rates across 6 years (2010/11 to 2015/16) were examined by sex, across quintiles of socio‐economic deprivation, and by ethnicity. Results: The prevalence of overweight, obesity and extreme obesity decreased by 2.2 [95% CI, 1.8–2.5], 2.0 [1.8–2.2] and 0.6 [0.4–0.6] percentage points, respectively, between 2010/2011 and 2015/2016. The downward trends in overweight, obesity and extreme obesity in the population persisted after adjustment for sex, ethnicity, deprivation and urban/rural residence. Downward trends were also observed across sex, ethnicity and deprivation groups. Conclusions: The prevalence of obesity appears to be declining in 4‐year‐old children in New Zealand across all socio‐economic and ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed whether maternal height was associated with gestational age in a cohort of 294 children born at term. Increasing maternal height was associated with longer pregnancy duration (p= 0.002). Stratified analyses showed that the main effect on pregnancy length appears to occur among shorter mothers (<165 cm tall), whose pregnancies were ∼0.6 and ∼0.7 weeks shorter than pregnancies of mothers 165–170 cm (p= 0.0009) and >170 cm (p= 0.0002) tall, respectively. Further, children of shorter mothers were more likely to be born early term than those of average height (p= 0.021) and taller (p= 0.0003) mothers. Maternal stature is likely to be a contributing factor influencing long-term outcomes in the offspring via its effect on pregnancy length. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Embryo transfer of large sheep breed embryos (Suffolk) into small breed ewes (Cheviot) constrains birth size, but the maternal factors influencing fetal growth restriction are unknown. We hypothesized that reciprocal embryo transfer crosses between breeds of divergent size would affect pregnancy-related development of maternal insulin resistance in midgestation, thereby influencing fetal growth. Following superovulation, embryos were surgically collected 6 d postmating and transferred to recipients on the same day. Between- and within-breed transfers were performed. Between 60 and 70 d of pregnancy overnight-fasted ewes underwent hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps for assessment of insulin sensitivity. Maternal insulin sensitivity did not vary with transferred lamb breed. Overall, Cheviot ewes tended to have higher fasting glucose (P = 0.068), fasting insulin (P = 0.052), and steady-state glucose (P = 0.065) concentrations than Suffolk ewes at the stage of pregnancy studied. As expected, transferred between-breed Suffolk lambs were born lighter (P = 0.014), and transferred between-breed Cheviot lambs tended to be heavier at birth (P = 0.056) than respective lambs transferred within breed. Midgestation insulin sensitivity does not appear to be a major factor constraining growth of large breed sheep fetus transferred into smaller breed or a factor in releasing constraint in growth of a small breed fetus within a larger breed ewe. However, as embryo size is already different between transferred groups by 19 d, factors other than maternal gestational insulin resistance may determine fetal growth in this embryo transfer paradigm., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)