Early maternal perceived stress and children’s BMI: longitudinal impact and influencing factors

BMC Public Health

Table 3 Impact of maternal perceived stress levels on longitudinal BMI z-score development in preschool children (birth-age 5)

		β estimate^a	95% CI	p-value
A - Maternal perceived stress at
Pregnancy	(n = 498)	0.06	-0.07 – 0.20	0.372
Year 1	(n = 491)	0.23	0.08 – 0.37	0.002
Year 2	(n = 473)	0.09	-1.47 – 1.64	0.283
Pregnancy to year 2	(n = 473)	0.06	-0.01 – 0.12	0.078
B - Sex-stratified effect of maternal perceived stress at year 1
Girls only	(n = 241)	0.30	0.11 – 0.49	0.002
Boys only	(n = 250)	0.10	-0.11 – 0.31	0.333

(A) Effects of maternal perceived stress during pregnancy, year 1 and year 2 (B) Sex disparity in susceptibility to maternal perceived stress at year 1. Significant associations are presented in bold (p ≤ 0.05)
^aEstimates derived from general estimation equations GEE for BMI z-scores (birth to age 5) as dependent variable, adjusted for gestational week at delivery, mode of delivery, pregnancy cotinine levels and breastfeeding duration (not for pregnancy stress levels)

ISSN: 1471-2458