Mother's obesity linked with adulthood cancer in children: Study

Obesity is linked to many illnesses. But a new research suggests that obesity in mothers while they were pregnant increases chances of bowel cancer in their children later in life.

Researchers say that adult offsprings of overweight women have high chances of developing bowel cancer than those children whose mothers were underweight or had healthy weight.

The research has been published in the journal Gut. The researchers analysed data collected from mothers who received prenatal care between 1959 and 1966 in Oakland, California. Information was obtained of there health six months before they became pregnant. The team of researchers tracked health of more than 18,000 children through 2019.

68 of the children developed bowel cancel in adulthood. Researchers found that the children who had overweight mothers had likelihood of 2.5 times more than those children with mothers who were not obese.