Gestational Diabetes May Accelerate Child's Biological Age, finds study

The researchers measured the epigenetic age of 1,156 children who were ages 3 to 10 in Tianjin, China, to see how it differed from their chronological age. They found that children born to mothers who had diabetes while pregnant had a higher epigenetic age — or were "older" than their actual age — and that this epigenetic age is associated with higher weight, body mass index, body fat percentage, upper-arm circumference and blood pressure.

"These findings suggest that gestational diabetes may have long-term effects on epigenetic aging in offspring and lead to poorer cardiometabolic health outcomes," said lead author Stephanie Shiau, an instructor at the Rutgers School of Public Health.

The findings support the need for further studies using longitudinal samples to evaluate the association between epigenetic age and later onset of adult metabolic diseases. In the United States, between 2 percent to 10 percent of pregnancies are affected by the condition annually, according to the National Institutes of Health.