Maternal obesity in pregnancy is associated with neurobehavioral problems in the offspring. Establishing causality has been challenging in existing human studies, due to confounding by genetic and postnatal environment. Animal experiments can improve our understanding of this association. This systematic review examined the effects of maternal obesity in pregnancy on offspring neurobehavior in animal models. We included 26 studies (1047 offspring animals). Meta-analyses showed that offspring of obese mothers displayed higher levels of locomotor activity (standardized mean difference (SMD) 0.34 [0.10; 0.58]) and anxiety behavior (SMD 0.47 [0.16; 0.79]) than offspring of lean mothers, but similar memory abilities (SMD −0.06 [−0.52; 0.39]). Meta-analysis of learning abilities was not sensible due to heterogeneity. Although the evidence was heterogeneous and the quality of the included studies generally unclear, this systematic review of animal studies indicates an effect of maternal obesity on increased offspring locomotor activity and anxiety, but not on offspring memory performance. These findings may be important from a public health perspective since obesity is rapidly increasing worldwide, and warrant further research.

孕妇肥胖与后代的神经行为问题有关。由于遗传和出生后环境的困扰，在现有的人类研究中确定因果关系一直是一个挑战。动物实验可以增进我们对这种关联的理解。这项系统评价审查了孕妇肥胖对动物模型后代神经行为的影响。我们纳入了26个研究（1047个后代动物）。荟萃分析显示，肥胖母亲的后代表现出较高的运动能力（标准平均差异（SMD）0.34 [0.10; 0.58]）和焦虑行为（SMD 0.47 [0.16; 0.79]），但肥胖者的后代记忆力却相似技能（SMD -0.06 [-0.52; 0.39]）。由于异质性，对学习能力的荟萃分析不明智。尽管证据不一，所纳入研究的质量总体上尚不清楚，但是对动物研究的系统评价表明，母体肥胖对后代运动能力和焦虑的增加有影响，但对后代记忆力却没有影响。从公共卫生的角度来看，这些发现可能很重要，因为肥胖症在全球范围内正在迅速增加，需要进一步研究。