Abstract
Objective: To investigate the relationships between self-assessed financial difficulties, diet in pregnancy and birthweight.
Design: Information on diet composition, difficulty in affording food, smoking habits and parity was collected by self-completion questionnaires at 32 weeks of pregnancy. Information on birthweights was obtained from hospital records.
Subjects: A geographically defined population 11 833 pregnant women resident in the South-West of England.
Main outcome measures: Nutrient intakes, food choices and birthweight.
Results: Women with greater difficulty in affording food had lower intakes of protein, fibre, vitamin C, niacin, pyridoxine, iron, zinc, magnesium and potassium than did women with little or no difficulty. They were more likely to use cooking and spreading fats with a high saturates content, and less likely to eat fish, fruit, vegetables and salad. In a multivariate analysis including parity and smoking status, financial difficulty was found to have no significant relationship with birthweight.
Conclusion: The quality of diet in pregnancy falls with increasing difficulty in affording food. However, this does not appear to affect mean birthweight of infants born after 32 weeks gestation.
Sponsor: The nutritional aspects of the study have been supported by Northern and Yorkshire region—NHS executive, Cow and Gate Ltd, the Meat & Livestock Commission and Coca-Cola UK.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Consortia
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rogers, I., Emmett, P., Baker, D. et al. Financial difficulties, smoking habits, composition of the diet and birthweight in a population of pregnant women in the South West of England. Eur J Clin Nutr 52, 251–260 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600544
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600544
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Association of dietary diversity of 6–23 months aged children with prenatal and postnatal obstetric care: evidence from a nationwide cross-sectional study
Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition (2023)
-
Fetal Sex and Race Modify the Predictors of Fetal Growth
Maternal and Child Health Journal (2015)
-
Dietary assessment in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2009)
-
Major Influences on Nutrient Intake in Pregnant New Zealand Women
Maternal and Child Health Journal (2009)
-
The effect of maternal smoking status, educational level and age on food and nutrient intakes in preschool children: results from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2003)