2014-03-01
Fish intake during pregnancy, fetal growth, and gestational length in 19 European birth cohort studies
Publication
Publication
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , Volume 99 - Issue 3 p. 506- 516
Background: Fish is a rich source of essential nutrients for fetal development, but in contrast, it is also a well-known route of exposure to environmental pollutants. Objective: We assessed whether fish intake during pregnancy is associated with fetal growth and the length of gestation in a panel of European birth cohort studies. Design: The study sample of 151,880 mother-child pairs was derived from 19 population-based European birth cohort studies. Individual data from cohorts were pooled and harmonized. Adjusted cohort-specific effect estimates were combined by using a random- and fixed-effects meta-analysis. Results: Women who ate fish >1 time/wk during pregnancy had lower risk of preterm birth than did women who rarely ate fish (≤1 time/wk); the adjusted RR of fish intake >1 but <3 times/wk was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.82, 0.92), and for intake ≥3 times/wk, the adjusted RR was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.84, 0.96). Women with a higher intake of fish during pregnancy gave birth to neonates with a higher birth weight by 8.9 g (95% CI: 3.3, 14.6 g) for >1 but <3 times/wk and 15.2 g (95% CI: 8.9, 21.5 g) for ≥3 times/wk independent of gestational age. The association was greater in smokers and in overweight or obese women. Findings were consistent across cohorts. Conclusion: This large, international study indicates that moderate fish intake during pregnancy is associated with lower risk of preterm birth and a small but significant increase in birth weight.
| Additional Metadata | |
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| doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.113.067421, hdl.handle.net/1765/76335 | |
| The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | |
| Organisation | Department of Dermatology |
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Leventakou, V., Roumeliotaki, T., Martinez, D., Barros, A., Brantsaeter, A.-L., Casas, M., … Chatzi, L. (2014). Fish intake during pregnancy, fetal growth, and gestational length in 19 European birth cohort studies. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 99(3), 506–516. doi:10.3945/ajcn.113.067421 |
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