Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T14:11:51.368Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Maternal adherence to healthy lifestyle and risk of depressive symptoms in the offspring: mediation by offspring lifestyle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2022

Wei-Chen Wang Open the ORCID record for Wei-Chen Wang [Opens in a new window] ,
Ming Ding ,
Susanne Strohmaier ,
Eva Schernhammer ,
Qi Sun ,
Jorge E. Chavarro  and
Henning Tiemeier Open the ORCID record for Henning Tiemeier [Opens in a new window]
Wei-Chen Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
Ming Ding
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
Susanne Strohmaier
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Eva Schernhammer
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Qi Sun
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Jorge E. Chavarro
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Henning Tiemeier*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Henning Tiemeier, E-mail: tiemeier@hsph.harvard.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Adherence to healthy lifestyles can be beneficial for depression among adults, but the intergenerational impact of maternal healthy lifestyles on offspring depressive symptoms is unknown.

Methods

In total, 10 368 mothers in Nurses' Health Study II and 13 478 offspring in the Growing Up Today Study were paired. Maternal and offspring healthy lifestyles were defined as a composite score including a healthy diet, normal body mass index (BMI), never-smoking, light-to-moderate consumption of alcohol, and regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Maternal lifestyles were assessed during their offspring's childhood. Offspring depressive symptoms were repeatedly assessed five times using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale-10 (CESD-10); the offspring were between the ages of 14 and 30 when the first CESD-10 was assessed. Covariates included maternal variables (age at baseline, race/ethnicity, antidepressant use, pregnancy complications, etc.) and offspring age and sex.

Results

Children of mothers with the healthiest lifestyle had significantly fewer depressive symptoms (a 0.30 lower CESD-10 score, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.09–0.50) in comparison with children of mothers with the least healthy lifestyle. The association was only found significant in female offspring but not in males. For individual maternal lifestyle factors, a normal BMI, never-smoking, and adherence to regular physical activity were independently associated with fewer depressive symptoms among the offspring. The association between maternal healthy lifestyles and offspring depressive symptoms was mediated by offspring's healthy lifestyles (mediation effect: 53.2%, 95% CI 15.8–87.3).

Conclusions

Our finding indicates the potential mechanism of intergenerational transmission of healthy lifestyles to reduce the risk of depressive symptoms in offspring.

Keywords

Depressive symptomshealthy lifestylemother–child pairs
Type
Original Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 53 , Issue 13 , October 2023 , pp. 6068 - 6076
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adjibade, M., Lemogne, C., Julia, C., Hercberg, S., Galan, P., Assmann, K. E., & Kesse-Guyot, E. (2018). Prospective association between combined healthy lifestyles and risk of depressive symptoms in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort. Journal of Affective Disorders, 238, 554–562. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.05.038CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ashford, J., van Lier, P. A., Timmermans, M., Cuijpers, P., & Koot, H. M. (2008). Prenatal smoking and internalizing and externalizing problems in children studied from childhood to late adolescence. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(7), 779–787. doi: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e318172eefbCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Axinn, W. G., Young-Demarco, L., & Ro, M. C. (2011). Gender double standards in parenting attitudes. Social Science Research, 40(2), 417–432. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.08.010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron, E. C., Davies, T., & Lund, C. (2017). Validation of the 10-item Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-10) in Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans populations in South Africa. BMC Psychiatry, 17(1), 6. doi: 10.1186/s12888-016-1178-xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernaras, E., Jaureguizar, J., & Garaigordobil, M. (2019). Child and adolescent depression: A review of theories, evaluation instruments, prevention programs, and treatments. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 543. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00543CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boey, K. W. (1999). Cross-validation of a short form of the CES-D in Chinese elderly. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14(8), 608–617. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199908)14:8<608::aid-gps991>3.0.co;2-z3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, K. L., Bagnell, A. L., & Brannen, C. L. (2010). Factorial validity of the center for epidemiological studies depression 10 in adolescents. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 31(6), 408–412. doi: 10.3109/01612840903484105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buttery, A. K., Mensink, G. B., & Busch, M. A. (2014). Healthy behaviours and mental health: Findings from the German Health Update (GEDA). European Journal of Public Health, 25(2), 219–225. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/cku094CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chatterton, Z., Hartley, B. J., Seok, M. H., Mendelev, N., Chen, S., Milekic, M., … Haghighi, F. (2017). In utero exposure to maternal smoking is associated with DNA methylation alterations and reduced neuronal content in the developing fetal brain. Epigenetics & Chromatin, 10, 4. doi: 10.1186/s13072-017-0111-yCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chiuve, S. E., Fung, T. T., Rimm, E. B., Hu, F. B., McCullough, M. L., Wang, M., … Willett, W. C. (2012). Alternative dietary indices both strongly predict risk of chronic disease. Journal of Nutrition, 142(6), 1009–1018. doi: 10.3945/jn.111.157222CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colditz, G. A., & Hankinson, S. E. (2005). The nurses' health study: Lifestyle and health among women. Nature Reviews Cancer, 5(5), 388–396. doi: 10.1038/nrc1608CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davey Smith, G., Holmes, M. V., Davies, N. M., & Ebrahim, S. (2020). Mendel's laws, Mendelian randomization and causal inference in observational data: Substantive and nomenclatural issues. European Journal of Epidemiology, 35(2), 99–111. doi: 10.1007/s10654-020-00622-7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dhana, K., Haines, J., Liu, G., Zhang, C., Wang, X., Field, A. E., … Sun, Q. (2018). Association between maternal adherence to healthy lifestyle practices and risk of obesity in offspring: Results from two prospective cohort studies of mother–child pairs in the United States. BMJ, 362, k2486. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k2486CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ditlhong, K. E., Ngesa, O. O., & Kombo, A. Y. (2018). A comparative analysis of generalized estimating equations methods for incomplete longitudinal ordinal data with ignorable dropouts. Open Journal of Statistics, 08(05), 770–792. doi: 10.4236/ojs.2018.85051CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Onofrio, B. M., Van Hulle, C. A., Waldman, I. D., Rodgers, J. L., Harden, K. P., Rathouz, P. J., & Lahey, B. B. (2008). Smoking during pregnancy and offspring externalizing problems: An exploration of genetic and environmental confounds. Developmental Psychology, 20(1), 139–164. doi: 10.1017/s0954579408000072CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Easey, K. E., Timpson, N. J., & Munafò, M. R. (2020). Association of prenatal alcohol exposure and offspring depression: A negative control analysis of maternal and partner consumption. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 44(5), 1132–1140. doi: 10.1111/acer.14324CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edlow, A. G. (2017). Maternal obesity and neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in offspring. Prenatal Diagnosis, 37(1), 95–110. doi: 10.1002/pd.4932CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Faa, G., Manchia, M., Pintus, R., Gerosa, C., Marcialis, M. A., & Fanos, V. (2016). Fetal programming of neuropsychiatric disorders. Birth defects Research. Part C, Embryo Today: Reviews, 108(3), 207–223. doi: 10.1002/bdrc.21139CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feskanich, D., Rimm, E. B., Giovannucci, E. L., Colditz, G. A., Stampfer, M. J., Litin, L. B., & Willett, W. C. (1993). Reproducibility and validity of food intake measurements from a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 93(7), 790–796. doi: 10.1016/0002-8223(93)91754-eCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Field, A. E., Aneja, P., & Rosner, B. (2007). The validity of self-reported weight change among adolescents and young adults. Obesity (Silver Spring), 15(9), 2357–2364. doi: 10.1038/oby.2007.279CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garber, J. (2006). Depression in children and adolescents: Linking risk research and prevention. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 31(6 Suppl 1), S104–S125. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2006.07.007CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gutin, I. (2018). In BMI we trust: Reframing the body mass index as a measure of health. Social Theory & Health, 16(3), 256–271. doi: 10.1057/s41285-017-0055-0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hauenstein, E. J. (2003). Depression in adolescence. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, 32(2), 239–248. doi: 10.1177/0884217503252133CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herman, C. P., & Polivy, J. (2005). Normative influences on food intake. Physiology & Behavior, 86(5), 762–772. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2005.08.064CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermans, R. C., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Bevelander, K. E., Herman, C. P., Larsen, J. K., & Engels, R. C. (2012). Mimicry of food intake: The dynamic interplay between eating companions. PLoS ONE, 7(2), e31027. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031027CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howell, K. R., & Powell, T. L. (2017). Effects of maternal obesity on placental function and fetal development. Reproduction (Cambridge, England), 153(3), R97–R108. doi: 10.1530/REP-16-0495CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Indredavik, M. S., Brubakk, A. M., Romundstad, P., & Vik, T. (2007). Prenatal smoking exposure and psychiatric symptoms in adolescence. Acta Paediatrica, 96(3), 377–382. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2006.00148.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jantsch, J., Tassinari, I. D., Giovenardi, M., Bambini-Junior, V., Guedes, R. P., & de Fraga, L. S. (2022). Mood disorders induced by maternal overnutrition: The role of the gut–brain axis on the development of depression and anxiety. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 10, 795384–795384. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2022.795384CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karchynskaya, V., Kopcakova, J., Klein, D., Gába, A., Madarasova-Geckova, A., van Dijk, J. P., … Reijneveld, S. A. (2020). Is BMI a valid indicator of overweight and obesity for adolescents?. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(13), 4815. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17134815CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Larsen, J. K., Hermans, R. C., Sleddens, E. F., Engels, R. C., Fisher, J. O., & Kremers, S. P. (2015). How parental dietary behavior and food parenting practices affect children's dietary behavior. Interacting sources of influence? Appetite, 89, 246–257. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.02.012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewinsohn, P. M., Rohde, P., & Seeley, J. R. (1998). Major depressive disorder in older adolescents: Prevalence, risk factors, and clinical implications. Clinical Psychology Review, 18(7), 765–794. doi: 10.1016/s0272-7358(98)00010-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lin, D. Y., Fleming, T., & De Gruttola, V. (1997). Estimating the proportion of treatment effect explained by a surrogate marker. Statistics in Medicine, 16(13), 1515–1527. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0258(19970715)16:13<1515::aid-sim572>3.0.co;2-13.0.CO;2-1>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Little, R. J. A., & Rubin, D. B. (2019). Statistical analysis with missing data (Vol. 793, 3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Loprinzi, P. D., & Mahoney, S. (2014). Concurrent occurrence of multiple positive lifestyle behaviors and depression among adults in the United States. Journal of Affective Disorders, 165, 126–130. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.04.073CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mojtabai, R., Olfson, M., & Han, B. (2016). National trends in the prevalence and treatment of depression in adolescents and young adults. Pediatrics, 138(6), e20161878. doi: 10.1542/peds.2016-1878CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, L. L., Lombardi, D. A., White, M. J., Campbell, J. L., Oliveria, S. A., & Ellison, R. C. (1991). Influence of parents' physical activity levels on activity levels of young children. The Journal of Pediatrics, 118(2), 215–219. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(05)80485-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moylan, S., Gustavson, K., Øverland, S., Karevold, E. B., Jacka, F. N., Pasco, J. A., & Berk, M. (2015). The impact of maternal smoking during pregnancy on depressive and anxiety behaviors in children: The Norwegian mother and child cohort study. BMC Medicine, 13, 24. doi: 10.1186/s12916-014-0257-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nevo, D., Liao, X., & Spiegelman, D. (2017). Estimation and inference for the mediation proportion. The International Journal of Biostatistics, 13(2), 20170006. doi: 10.1515/ijb-2017-0006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rahimi, S., Peeri, M., Azarbayjani, M. A., Anoosheh, L., Ghasemzadeh, E., Khalifeh, N., … Salari, A. A. (2020). Long-term exercise from adolescence to adulthood reduces anxiety- and depression-like behaviors following maternal immune activation in offspring. Physiology & Behavior, 226, 113130. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.113130CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rimm, E. B., Giovannucci, E. L., Stampfer, M. J., Colditz, G. A., Litin, L. B., & Willett, W. C. (1992). Reproducibility and validity of an expanded self-administered semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire among male health professionals. American Journal of Epidemiology, 135(10), 1114–1126, discussion 1127–1136. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116211CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rimm, E. B., Stampfer, M. J., Colditz, G. A., Chute, C. G., Litin, L. B., & Willett, W. C. (1990). Validity of self-reported waist and hip circumferences in men and women. Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.), 1(6), 466–473. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199011000-00009CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robinson, A. M., & Bucci, D. J. (2012). Maternal exercise and cognitive functions of the offspring. Cognitive Sciences, 7(2), 187–205.Google ScholarPubMed
Salvini, S., Hunter, D. J., Sampson, L., Stampfer, M. J., Colditz, G. A., Rosner, B., & Willett, W. C. (1989). Food-based validation of a dietary questionnaire: The effects of week-to-week variation in food consumption. International Journal of Epidemiology, 18(4), 858–867. doi: 10.1093/ije/18.4.858CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sanchez-Villegas, A., Schlatter, J., Ortuno, F., Lahortiga, F., Pla, J., Benito, S., & Martinez-Gonzalez, M. A. (2008). Validity of a self-reported diagnosis of depression among participants in a cohort study using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I). BMC Psychiatry, 8, 43. doi: 10.1186/1471-244x-8-43CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scaglioni, S., De Cosmi, V., Ciappolino, V., Parazzini, F., Brambilla, P., & Agostoni, C. (2018). Factors influencing children's eating behaviours. Nutrients, 10(6), 706. doi: 10.3390/nu10060706CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seedall, R. B., & Anthony, J. C. (2015). Monitoring by parents and hypothesized male–female differences in evidence from a nationally representative cohort re-sampled from age 12 to 17 years: An exploratory study using a ‘mutoscope’ approach. Prevention Science, 16(5), 696–706. doi: 10.1007/s11121-014-0517-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stenholm, S., Head, J., Kivimäki, M., Kawachi, I., Aalto, V., Zins, M., … Vahtera, J. (2016). Smoking, physical inactivity and obesity as predictors of healthy and disease-free life expectancy between ages 50 and 75: A multicohort study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(4), 1260–1270. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyw126CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sullivan, E. L., Riper, K. M., Lockard, R., & Valleau, J. C. (2015). Maternal high-fat diet programming of the neuroendocrine system and behavior. Hormones and Behavior, 76, 153–161. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2015.04.008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thapar, A., Collishaw, S., Pine, D. S., & Thapar, A. K. (2012). Depression in adolescence. Lancet (London, England), 379(9820), 1056–1067. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60871-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Dam, R. M., Li, T., Spiegelman, D., Franco, O. H., & Hu, F. B. (2008). Combined impact of lifestyle factors on mortality: Prospective cohort study in US women. BMJ, 337, a1440. doi: 10.1136/bmj.a1440Google ScholarPubMed
White, H. R., Johnson, V., & Buyske, S. (2000). Parental modeling and parenting behavior effects on offspring alcohol and cigarette use. A growth curve analysis. Journal of Substance Abuse, 12(3), 287–310. doi: 10.1016/s0899-3289(00)00056-0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Willett, W. C., Sampson, L., Stampfer, M. J., Rosner, B., Bain, C., Witschi, J., … Speizer, F. E. (1985). Reproducibility and validity of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. American Journal of Epidemiology, 122(1), 51–65. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114086CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolf, A. M., Hunter, D. J., Colditz, G. A., Manson, J. E., Stampfer, M. J., Corsano, K. A., … Willett, W. C. (1994). Reproducibility and validity of a self-administered physical activity questionnaire. International Journal of Epidemiology, 23(5), 991–999. doi: 10.1093/ije/23.5.991CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yao, C. A., & Rhodes, R. E. (2015). Parental correlates in child and adolescent physical activity: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 12, 10. doi: 10.1186/s12966-015-0163-yCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Wang et al. supplementary material

Wang et al. supplementary material

Download Wang et al. supplementary material(File)
File 174.1 KB