The effect of maternal and nutritional factors on birth weight: a cohort study in Tehran, Iran
ISSN: 0034-6659
Article publication date: 11 February 2022
Issue publication date: 29 August 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of maternal food intake before and during pregnancy on birth weight.
Design/methodology/approach
As a prospective cohort study, a total of 585 pregnant women of first trimester, visiting Tehran Metropolitan Area public health centers and private sectors (clinics and hospitals), were interviewed at first phase, and pregestational dietary intake was obtained by a 168-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. At the third trimester, dietary recalls were collected via interview. Finally, birth weight information was extracted from health records. Univariate and multivariate analysis was used to explore the effect of maternal and nutritional factors on birth weight.
Findings
The results of the analysis show that direct measures of nutrition, measured as food group consumption at first and third trimester of pregnancy, had no significant effect on birth weight once the confounding factors were controlled (p > 0.05). Of control variables included in the analysis, twin pregnancy outcome (p = 0.000), pregnancy number (p = 0.04), prepregnancy weight (p = 0.004) (marginally significant) and gestational age (p = 0.000) (marginally significant) were associated with birth weight.
Originality/value
The results of this study show no significant role of mother’s nutrition during pregnancy on birth weight, while long-term nutrition outcomes such as prepregnancy weight had significant role. It seems the main reasons behind less important role of pregnancy nutrition on birth weight in this study include the following: food intake deficiency is not a major problem for participants, and cross-sectional data on food intake are less important on outcome of pregnancy weight than long-term nutritional status outcome variables such as mother’s weight and height. This finding should be addressed in public health planning for women at childbearing age.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to appreciate the mothers who attended in this research. They also, would like to acknowledge the National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute (NNFTRI) and Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology [grant numbers 619] and Pediatrics Department of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of the I.R. of Iran for generously supporting the data collection stages. The authors wish to thank all who participated in or collaborated with current study.
Author’s contribution: H.E.Z. was the principle investigator and had a main role in design, analysis and writing the article. T.K and Z.M collaborated in design, data collection, analysis and preparing the manuscript. A.R. had a role in supervision of data collection, analysis and final proof reading of the manuscript.
Financial Support: This study is supported by a grant from the National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute and by the combined support of the School of Nutrition and Food Science, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.
Authorship: H.E.Z and A.R. designed the study. Z.M and T.K collected and analyzed data. H.E.Z and Z.M prepared the manuscript. H.E.Z and A.R supervised statistical analysis and supervised the study.
Ethics of human subject participation: This study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and all procedures involving human subjects were approved by the Ethical Committees of the NNFTRI and the Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Citation
Karimi, T., Moslemi, Z., Rezazadeh, A. and Eini-Zinab, H. (2022), "The effect of maternal and nutritional factors on birth weight: a cohort study in Tehran, Iran", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 52 No. 7, pp. 1116-1128. https://doi.org/10.1108/NFS-10-2021-0311
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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