To examine the impact of maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) status on longitudinal changes in adiposity and metabolic variables in overweight Latino offspring (from age 8-20 years) across puberty.

This longitudinal cohort of 210 overweight Latino children was measured annually for a period of 3 ± 1 years for Tanner stage through physical examination, adiposity by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and magnetic resonance imaging, lipids, and glucose and insulin action via the oral glucose tolerance test and frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test. Linear mixed-effects modeling estimated the impact of maternal GDM status on baseline and changes in adiposity and metabolic variables across puberty.

In our cohort, 22% of offspring were from GDM pregnancies. At baseline, the GDM offspring were heavier at birth, more likely to have a family history of type 2 diabetes, and less likely to have been breastfed (for any duration). Compared with the non-GDM offspring, the GDM offspring had greater increases in total body fat (+6.5% vs +4.5%; P = .03) and steeper declines in acute insulin response (−39% vs −17%; P < .001) and disposition index (−57% vs −35%; P < .001) across Tanner stages, independent of ethnicity, sex, breastfeeding status, family history of diabetes, and baseline and changes in body composition.

These findings confirm the elevated risk for excess adiposity and type 2 diabetes in GDM offspring, and further underscore the need for interventions targeting Latino GDM and their offspring.