Obesity and blood pressure in 17-year-old offspring of mothers with gestational diabetes: insights from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study.

Objective: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) influences fetal development and offspring's metabolic risk. We evaluated this association in 17-year-old offspring adjusting for birth weight (BW) and prepregnancy maternal BMI (mBMI).
Study Design: The JPS birth cohort contains extensive data on 92,408 births from 1964 to 1976. Offspring's BMI and blood pressure (BP) were obtained from military records. For a subcohort born between 1974 and 1976, prepregnancy mBMI was available. Offspring were classified as born to mothers with GDM (n = 293) or born to mothers without recorded GDM (n = 59,499).
Results: GDM offspring had higher mean BMI and systolic and diastolic BP compared to no-recorded-GDM offspring. After adjusting for BW, GDM remained significantly associated with offspring BMI and diastolic BP (β = 1.169 and 1.520, resp.). In the subcohort, when prepregnancy mBMI was entered to the models, it markedly attenuated the associations with GDM.
Conclusions: Maternal characteristics have long-term effects on cardiometabolic outcomes of their offspring aged 17 years.