Prenatal determinants of childhood obesity: a review of risk factors

Childhood obesity is a predictor of adult obesity, and has its roots in the pre-pregnancy or pregnancy period. This review presents an overview of the prenatal risk factors for childhood obesity, which were categorized into two groups: biological risk factors (maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, gestational weight gain, diabetes in pregnancy, and caesarean section), and environmental and behavioural risk factors (maternal smoking and exposure to obesogens, maternal dietary patterns, maternal intestinal microbiome and antibiotics exposure, and maternal psychosocial stress). Identifying modifiable predisposing prenatal factors for obesity will inform further development of inventions to prevent obesity over the life course, and future directions for research and intervention are discussed.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author