Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Diseases · Oct 17, 2026

Prenatal lifestyle associations with maternal and infant metabolic biomarkers: secondary analysis of the PEARS RCT

By Philippe K, Tiwari PS, Douglass AP et al.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Maternal lifestyle factors may influence maternal and newborn metabolic biomarkers. Composite healthy lifestyle scores (HLS) have been developed but remain understudied among maternal high-risk populations, such as pregnant women with overweight or obesity and their offspring. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate associations between a Healthy Lifestyle Score (HLS) and its components in early and late pregnancy with metabolic biomarkers among women with overweight and obesity and their newborns. METHODS AND RESULTS: Secondary analyses were conducted with data from the PEARS trial. HLSs were created based on self-reported lifestyle habits (diet, physical activity, alcohol, smoking, and sleep) for 334 and 285 women in early and late pregnancy, respectively. Linear regression analyses examined associations of HLSs and its components with maternal biomarkers (fasting glucose, insulin, c-peptide, cholesterol, triglycerides, complement component C3, C-reactive protein, leptin, adiponectin, interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor alpha) in early and late pregnancy and in cord blood. Benjamini-and-Hochberg corrections were applied to account for multiple testing. Across all analytical models, a higher HLS and non-smoking status in early pregnancy were significantly associated with higher maternal HDL cholesterol and lower IL-6 levels, respectively. Most of the other associations, primarily those involving smoking and physical activity levels and maternal or infant inflammatory biomarkers, were robust across models but not all withstood correction for multiple testing. CONCLUSIONS: Having an overall healthy prenatal lifestyle, particularly not smoking and being physically active in pregnancy, show some benefits for lipid and inflammatory biomarkers.

doi.org/10.1016/j.numecd.2026.105034PubMed 42951785Populations