Maternal BMI and Pregnancy Outcomes: A Mendelian Randomisation Study

A 2.0 MB supplementary document from a Mendelian randomisation study investigating the causal effects of maternal body mass index on pregnancy outcomes. The study, authored by Christopher Flatley and last updated in April 2026, sourced genetic variant data from publicly available genome-wide association studies. It found elevated maternal BMI causally increased placental weight and the risk of pre-eclampsia.

Use Cases

• Investigating causal relationships between maternal BMI and birth weight based on genetic instrumental variables.
• Assessing the mediating role of immune-related blood counts like neutrophils and lymphocytes on pregnancy outcomes.
• Replicating two-step Mendelian randomisation analyses for placental weight and pre-eclampsia risk.
• Studying genetic effects on the intrauterine environment partitioned from maternal genetic data.

Strengths

• The study reports specific causal effect sizes, such as a 0.164 SD increase in placental weight per SD increase in maternal BMI.
• Analysis is based on genetic data from publicly available genome-wide association studies, a common standard in the field.
• The document is shared under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license, allowing for reuse.

Limitations

• The primary data file is a 2.0 MB DOCX document; the underlying genetic association summary statistics are not directly provided.
• Row count and column-level documentation for any potential supplementary data are unknown.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Genetic variant effect estimates were sourced from publicly available genome-wide association studies.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-23 22:02:01; freshness should be verified.