TABLE 1.

List of epidemiological studies on programming effects of paternal exposure to various risk factors

Risk factor	Source country	Group size (N)	The main findings of the study	Reference
Overnutrition	Sweden	1626 (F0 and F1) 271 (F2)	Longevity of male descendants of paternal grandfathers with overnutrition during SGP was reduced	[32]
Overnutrition	Sweden	239 (F2)	Cardiovascular and diabetes mortality in offspring of paternal grandfather with overnutrition during SGP was increased	[34]
Height	United Kingdom	226 parent–child trios	Height is transmitted to an offspring by both parents	[27]
BMI and height	Ireland	669 families and 529 children	Early childhood BMI in offspring is correlated only with maternal line. Offspring height is correlated with both maternal and paternal lines	[26]
BMI	United Kingdom	4091 parent–child trios	The amount of fat in offspring at 9–11 years of age is positively correlated with both maternal and paternal BMI, although maternal effect was more pronounced	[28]
BMI	Norway	29 216 parent–child trios	Offspring BMI at 3 years of age is positively correlated with both maternal and paternal BMI	[29]
BMI	China	899 parent–child trios	Paternal BMI is correlated with birth parameters of male offspring only: birth weight, biparietal diameter, head circumference, abdominal diameter, abdominal circumference, and pectoral diameter	[31]
Body fat	United Kingdom	39 mothers, 36 fathers, and 47 daughters	Paternal body fat predicts the changes in body fat of premenarcheal daughters	[25]
Cardiovascular risk factors	Norway	36 528 parent–child trios	Parent–offspring associations of anthropometric factors, blood pressure, blood lipids, glucose, and resting heart rate are largely similar between fathers and mothers	[30]
Betel quid chewing	China	5037 parent–child trios	Exposure to paternal betel quid chewing increases the risk of early manifestation of metabolic syndrome in human offspring in a dose-dependent manner	[46]
Smoking	Sweden	1818 (F0 and F1) and 303 F2	Early paternal smoking is associated with greater BMI at 9 years of age in sons, but not in daughters	[48]
Age	New Zealand	196 fathers and 277 children	Increasing paternal age at childbirth is associated with a more favorable phenotype in their children (taller and slimmer, with better insulin sensitivity in girls) but with a less favorable lipid profile	[65]
Type 2 diabetes	United States	1608 offspring	The offspring of diabetic fathers were lighter than the offspring of nondiabetic fathers and had an increased risk of diabetes in later life	[42]
Type 2 diabetes	United States	36 parent–child trios	Offspring of fathers with early-onset diabetes (age <35 years) were leaner and had lower early insulin secretion	[44]
Type 2 diabetes	United Kingdom	8133 (F0), 6328 (F1), and 2173 (F2)	The offspring of the fathers with diabetes had decreased birth weight	[43]
Low birth weight	Denmark	1097 mothers, 1063 fathers, and 2042 children	Paternal birth weight is positively associated with children's birth weight	[63]
Low birth weight	India	193 mothers, 144 fathers, and 506 children	Paternal birth weight was inversely related to offspring metabolic syndrome	[64]

F0, grandparents, F1, parents; F2, offspring; SGP, slow growth period.