Young adult men delivered via cesarean section are no more likely to develop overweight or obesity when compared with those who were delivered vaginally, according to a registry analysis published in PLOS Medicine.
“The association between cesarean section and offspring overweight and obesity has recently received further attention,” Viktor H. Ahlqvist, MS, a researcher in the department of global public health sciences at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues wrote in the study background. “Notably, the unprecedented increase in cesarean section has occurred at the same time as the obesity epidemic, which may suggest a connection between the two trends. However, as previous studies have noted, the association between cesarean section and obesity may be mainly driven by unmeasured confounding.”
Using Swedish population registry data, Ahlqvist and colleagues analyzed data from 97,291 men born between 1982 and 1987, followed from birth until conscription (median age, 18 years). Maternal and infant data were obtained from the Medical Birth Register; at conscription, weight and height were measured and transformed to WHO categories of BMI. Researchers used multinomial and linear regression to assess associations between delivery method and obesity.
The mean age of mothers at delivery was 29 years; mean prepregnancy BMI was 21.9 kg/m². Within the cohort, 4.9% had obesity at conscription.
Researchers found that the prevalence of obesity varied slightly among vaginal delivery (4.9%), elective cesarean section (5.5%) and nonelective cesarean section (5.6%), whereas BMI was consistent across modes of delivery.
Young adult men delivered via cesarean section are no more likely to develop overweight or obesity when compared with those who were delivered vaginally.
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Compared with vaginal delivery, there was no evidence of an association between nonelective or elective cesarean section and young adulthood obesity, with results persisting after adjustment for multiple factors such as prepregnancy maternal BMI, maternal diabetes at delivery, maternal hypertension at delivery, maternal smoking, parity, and gestational age and birth weight.
Additionally, researchers observed no association between elective or nonelective cesarean section delivery and overweight among men in early adulthood when compared with men delivered vaginally. Results persisted in sibling analysis and sensitivity analyses.
“This suggests that there is no clinically relevant association between cesarean section and the development of obesity,” the researchers wrote. “Further large-scale studies are warranted to examine the association between differentiated forms of cesarean section and obesity in young adult offspring.” – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
