Influence of intergenerational in utero parental energy and nutrient restriction on offspring growth in rural Gambia.

The authors investigated the association of parental exposure to energy and nutrient restriction in utero on their children's growth in rural Gambia. In a Gambian cohort with infants born between 1972 and 2011, the authors used multiple regression to test whether parental season of birth predicted offspring birth weight (n = 2097) or length (n = 1172), height-for-age z-score (HAZ), weight-for-height z-score (WHZ), and weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) at 2 yr of age (n = 923). They found that maternal exposure to seasonal energy restriction in utero was associated with reduced offspring birth length (crude:-4.2 mm, P = 0.005; adjusted: -4.0 mm, P = 0.02). In contrast, paternal birth season predicted offspring HAZ at 24 mo (crude: -0.21, P = 0.005; adjusted: -0.22, P = 0.004) but had no discernible impact at birth. These results indicate that periods of nutritional restriction in a parent's fetal life can have intergenerational consequences in human populations. Fetal growth appears to be under matriline influence, and postnatal growth appears to be under patriline intergenerational influences.