Korean J Pediatr.  2019 Oct;62(10):374-379. 10.3345/kjp.2019.00185.

The maternal prepregnancy body mass index and the risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis

• Jenabi E
• Bashirian
• Khazaei S
• Basiri Z

• KMID: 2464482
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3345/kjp.2019.00185

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms have a major impact on individuals, families, and society. Therefore identification risk factors of ADHD are a public health priority. PURPOSE: This is meta-analysis evaluated the association between maternal prepregnancy body mass index and the risk of ADHD among the resulting offspring.
METHODS
The search identified studies published through December 2018 in the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. The odds ratios (ORs) or hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) extracted from eligible studies were used as the common measure of association among studies.
RESULTS
A significant association was found between overweight women and the risk of ADHD among children with the pooled HR and OR estimates (HR, 1.27 and 95% CI, 1.17-1.37; OR, 1.28 and 95% CI, 1.15-1.40, respectively). This association was significant between obese women and the risk of ADHD among children and adolescents with the pooled estimates of HR and OR (HR, 1.65 and 95% CI, 1.55-1.76; OR, 1.42 and 95% CI, 1.23-1.61).
CONCLUSION
The current epidemiological studies present sufficient evidence that prepregnancy overweight and obesity are significantly associated with an increased risk of ADHD among children and adolescents. These findings provide a new approach to preventing ADHD by controlling weight gain in the prenatal period, which should be considered by policymakers.

Keyword

Attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity; Body mass index; Pregnancy

MeSH Terms

Adolescent*
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity*
Body Mass Index*
Child*
Epidemiologic Studies
Female
Humans
Obesity
Odds Ratio
Overweight
Pregnancy
Public Health
Risk Factors
Weight Gain