Dietary acrylamide intake during pregnancy and anthropometry at birth in the French EDEN mother-child cohort study

Abstract

Background and aimAcrylamide is a contaminant formed in a wide variety of carbohydrate-containing foods during frying or baking at high temperatures. Recent studies have suggested reduced foetal growth after exposure to high levels of acrylamide during pregnancy. ObjectiveTo study the relationship between maternal dietary acrylamide intake during pregnancy and their offspring’s anthropometry at birth. DesignIn our population of 1471 mother-child pairs from two French cities, Nancy and Poitiers, dietary acrylamide intake during pregnancy was assessed by combining maternal food frequency questionnaires with data on food contamination at the national level, provided by the second “French Total Diet Study”. Newborns weighing less than the 10th percentile, according to a customised definition, were defined as small for gestational age (SGA). Linear and logistic regression models were used to study continuous and binary outcomes respectively, adjusting for the study centre, maternal age at delivery, height, education, parity, smoking during pregnancy, the newborn’s gestational age at birth and sex. ResultsThe median and interquartile range of dietary acrylamide intake were 19.2μg/day (IQR, 11.8;30.3). Each 10μg/day increase in acrylamide intake was associated with an odds-ratio for SGA of 1.11 (95% Confidence Interval: 1.03,1.21), birth length change of −0.05cm (95% CI: −0.11,0.00) and birth weight change of −9.8g (95% CI: −21.3,1.7). ConclusionsOur results, consistent with both experimental and epidemiological studies, add to the evidence of an effect of acrylamide exposure on the risk of SGA and suggest an effect on foetal growth, for both weight and length.