Adherence to healthy lifestyles can be beneficial for depression among adults, but the intergenerational impact of maternal healthy lifestyles on offspring depressive symptoms is unknown.

In total, 10 368 mothers in Nurses' Health Study II and 13 478 offspring in the Growing Up Today Study were paired. Maternal and offspring healthy lifestyles were defined as a composite score including a healthy diet, normal body mass index (BMI), never-smoking, light-to-moderate consumption of alcohol, and regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Maternal lifestyles were assessed during their offspring's childhood. Offspring depressive symptoms were repeatedly assessed five times using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale-10 (CESD-10); the offspring were between the ages of 14 and 30 when the first CESD-10 was assessed. Covariates included maternal variables (age at baseline, race/ethnicity, antidepressant use, pregnancy complications, etc.) and offspring age and sex.

Children of mothers with the healthiest lifestyle had significantly fewer depressive symptoms (a 0.30 lower CESD-10 score, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.09–0.50) in comparison with children of mothers with the least healthy lifestyle. The association was only found significant in female offspring but not in males. For individual maternal lifestyle factors, a normal BMI, never-smoking, and adherence to regular physical activity were independently associated with fewer depressive symptoms among the offspring. The association between maternal healthy lifestyles and offspring depressive symptoms was mediated by offspring's healthy lifestyles (mediation effect: 53.2%, 95% CI 15.8–87.3).

Our finding indicates the potential mechanism of intergenerational transmission of healthy lifestyles to reduce the risk of depressive symptoms in offspring.

In the Middle East and North Africa region, the nutrition transition has resulted in drastic increases in excess adiposity, particularly among women, while some types of undernutrition remain prevalent, especially among pre-school children. We assessed the magnitude, nature and associated factors of the within-household co-occurrence of anaemia in children and excess adiposity in mothers.

Cross-sectional survey using stratified two-stage random cluster sampling to survey households with women aged 20–49 years. BMI≥25·0 kg/m2 defined overweight and BMI≥30·0 kg/m2 obesity, while anaemia for children was defined as Hb<110 g/l. The associations between child anaemia and mother excess adiposity, and sociodemographic and lifestyle factors were estimated by multinomial regression.

Greater Tunis area, Tunisia, in 2009–2010.

Children aged 6–59 months living with their 20–49-year-old mothers (437 child–mother pairs).

The most prevalent double burden of malnutrition in child–mother pairs by far was the anaemic child and overweight mother (24·4 %; 95 % CI 20·1, 29·3 %). A significant proportion of pairs were anaemic child and obese mother (14·4 %; 95 % CI 11·0, 18·5 %). The co-occurrence of anaemia in child and excess adiposity in mother was neither synergetic nor antagonistic (P=0·59 and 0·40 for anaemia–overweight and anaemia–obesity, respectively). This double burden was more frequent among child–mother pairs with younger children, with mothers of higher parity and higher energy intakes.

The high prevalence of anaemic child and overweight or obese mother requires special attention e.g. through interventions which simultaneously target both types of malnutrition within the same household.