Paternal body mass index before conception associated with offspring’s birth weight in Chinese population: a prospective study

Whether paternal epigenetic information of nutrition might be inherited by their offspring remained unknown. evaluate the relationship between preconception paternal body weight and their offspring’s birth weight in 1,810 Chinese mother-father-baby trios. Information on paternal and maternal preconception body weight and height was collected via a self-reported questionnaire. Birth weight was collected from medical records. Paternal preconception body weight was associated with offspring’s birth weight ( p trend=0 . 02 ) after multivariable adjustment. Each standard deviation increment of paternal body mass index was associated with an additional 29.6 g increase of birth weight (95% confident interval: 5.7g, 53.5g). The association was more pronounced in male neonates, and neonates with overweight mothers, and with mothers who gained excessive gestational weight, compared to their counterparts (all p interaction<0.05). Sensitivity analyses showed similar pattern to that of the main analysis. Paternal preconception body weight was associated with birth weight of their offspring. What is already known on this subject? More efforts have previously been put on the maternal contribution to birth weight, however, it is uncertain whether paternal pre-conceptional body weight, an indicator for epigenetic information, might be inherited by their offspring. What do the results of this study add? In the current study that included 1,810 Chinese mother-father-baby trios, a small but significant association was observed between paternal preconception body weight and offspring’s birth weight (p trend=0.02). What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Paternal epigenetic information of nutrition could be inherited by their offspring. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Clinical Trial This is a observational study. We did not implement any interventions. So we did not register. ### Funding Statement The study was supported by Scientific Research Starting Foundation of South Campus Ren Ji Hospital (2014QDQ10), and by the grant from Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (No.17DZ2272000) ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. This was a re-identified study based on a cohort study to evaluate maternal lipid profile and birth weight (Ref No. 2014QDQ10) and informed consent was given by both parent during their induction visit. All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes The SAS code and data that support the findings of this study are available from the first author upon reasonable request (Renying Xu, email address: xurenying7465{at}126.com)