question: Q:A pediatrician is investigating determinants of childhood obesity. He has been following a cohort of pregnant women with poorly controlled diabetes and comorbid obesity. In the ensuing years, he evaluated the BMI of the cohort's children. The results of the correlation analysis between mean childhood BMI (at 4 years of age) and both mean maternal BMI before pregnancy and mean maternal hemoglobin A1c during pregnancy are shown. All variables are continuous. Based on these findings, which of the following is the best conclusion?? 
  {'A': 'Maternal BMI is a stronger predictor of childhood BMI than maternal HbA1c', 'B': 'Higher maternal HbA1c leads to increased childhood BMI', 'C': 'An increase in maternal BMI is associated with a decrease in childhood BMI', 'D': 'The association between maternal BMI and childhood BMI has a steeper slope than maternal HbA1c and childhood BMI', 'E': 'There is a positively correlated linear association between maternal BMI and childhood BMI'},