Les facteurs de risque maternels, la santé pondérale et cardiométabolique des jeunes, et l’importance des habitudes de vie
Maternal and children’s health are major worldwide public health concerns. The current thesis aimed to explore the impact of maternal health during pregnancy on children’s and adolescents’ health and included three original research projects. The first study found that a prenatal exposure to independent or combined suboptimal gestational factors (SGF : gestational diabetes mellitus, hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, maternal smoking during pregnancy) was positively associated with obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors in children around puberty, and these associations were sex-dependent. The second study found that children exposed to one SGF display a similar physiological response in terms of mechanical efficiency and substrate oxidation at rest and during exercise (submaximal and maximal) in comparison with non-exposed children. The third study of the thesis found that light-intensity physical activity reduced the adverse impact of prenatal exposure to combined SGF on high density lipoprotein-cholestrol levels in boys. A sleep duration within the range of the current Canadian recommendations for sleep did not mitigate the risk of high waist circumference (children) and obesity (girls) in a context of exposure to maternal smoking during pregnancy. Furthermore, other lifestyle factors such as moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and a healthy diet (intakes of: fruits and vegetables, grains, and dairy products), did not mitigate the adverse impact of a prenatal exposure to independent or combined SGF on children’s risk of obesity and cardiomeatbolic outcomes. Taken together, these results suggest that it is important to continue maternal SGF prevention and management programs to provide optimal health for children. Moreover, future studies should also develop and evaluate the impact of lifestyle habits interventions to design future prevention strategies during childhood and adolescence to reduce obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors in this population.
Pregnancy Fetal programming Pediatric obesity Cardiometabolic risk factors Sleep Physical activity Diet Exercise physiology