Maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, smoking in pregnancy, and alcohol intake in pregnancy in relation to pubertal timing in the children.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Earlier pubertal timing has been observed in many countries. We aimed to explore if prenatal exposure to maternal obesity, smoking, and alcohol intake was associated with timing of puberty by use of a novel marker of pubertal timing: 'the height difference in standard deviations' (HD:SDS).

Methods

HD:SDS is the difference between pubertal height in standard deviations and adult height in standard deviations, and it correlates well with age at peak height velocity. Pubertal height was measured by health care professionals at approximately 13 years in boys and 11 years in girls, and the children's adult height was predicted from parental height reported by the mothers during pregnancy. Information on HD:SDS was available for 42,849 of 56,641 eligible boys and girls

SUBMITTER: Brix N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6745800 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature