Sex Differences in Combined Effects of Maternal Pre-Pregnancy BMI and OGTT Response Patterns on Early…

Cohort studyJournal of diabetes· Aug 2026

Sex Differences in Combined Effects of Maternal Pre-Pregnancy BMI and OGTT Response Patterns on Early Neurodevelopment in Offspring: A Cohort Study.

Kai Chen, Xiaoxuan Fan, Yuji Wang … Aifen Zhou

Child Development & BehaviourCohort studyQ1IF 4.6

In girls, maternal obesity plus high-glycemia oral glucose tolerance test pattern doubled odds of poor mental development.

Sex Differences in Combined Effects of Maternal Pre-Pregnancy BMI and OGTT Response Patterns on Early Neurodevelopment in Offspring: A Cohort Study.

Kai Chen … Aifen Zhou

Journal of diabetes · Aug 2026

Background

Maternal pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity and gestational hyperglycemia are linked to adverse offspring neurodevelopment, but the role of oral glucose tolerance test (oral glucose tolerance test) response patterns remains unclear.

Purpose

We investigated the independent and combined effects of maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and oral glucose tolerance test response patterns on neurodevelopment in 2-year-old offspring.

Methods

This cohort study included 2639 mother-child pairs from Wuhan, China.

Results

obesity plus high-glycemia oral glucose tolerance test nearly tripled girls' odds of poor mental development

OR 2.88 (95% CI 1.03 to 8.09)

CI excludes the null - significant

More results

Three oral glucose tolerance test response patterns were identified; pattern 3 showed the most pronounced glycemic response.

Maternal pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity alone showed nominal associations with lower MDI scores in the overall population and in girls, but these associations did not remain significant after FDR correction.

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Maternal pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity and oral glucose tolerance test response patterns alone showed limited independent associations with offspring neurodevelopment.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

However, combined exposure may be associated with poorer mental developmental performance, with more consistent evidence in girls.

Sex Differences in Combined Effects of Maternal Pre-Pregnancy BMI and OGTT Response Patterns on Early Neurodevelopment in Offspring: A Cohort Study.

Sex Differences in Combined Effects of Maternal Pre-Pregnancy BMI and OGTT Response Patterns on Early Neurodevelopment in Offspring: A Cohort Study.

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