Obesity, gestational weight gain, and polyunsaturated fatty acids profile in pregnant Saudi women.

Hala Al-Otaibi

doi:10.6026/97320630016493

Abstract

Obesity and excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) are associated with a deficiency of essential fatty acids, affecting maternal health during and after pregnancy. Therefore, it is of interest to identify the associations of pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and GWG with lipid profiles in Saudi women after giving birth. Hence, a cross-sectional study of 238 pregnant women aged 20-40 years was conducted at the King Abdul Aziz Hospital, in Al-Ahsa Governorate-Saudi Arabia. Thus, socio-demographic and anthropometric data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), saturated fatty acids (SFAs), and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) levels were assessed from blood samples collected after the women gave birth. The participants generally consumed diets low in omega-3 and omega-6 PUFAs and high in SFAs and MUFAs. Among them, 51% had university degrees, only 20.4% were employed, and 50% had pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity. Women with overweight/obesity had a higher omega-6 to omega-3 PUFA ratio than women with normal weight. Overweight, obesity, and excessive GWG were not associated with higher levels of total n-3 PUFAs, docosahexaenoic acid, and α-linolenic acid but were associated with higher levels of total n-6 PUFAs and linoleic acid. Women with obesity had significantly higher SFA and MUFA levels than women with normal weight, whereas women with excessive GWG were twice as likely to have higher SFA levels than women with adequate GWG. We show that a higher pre-pregnancy BMI and excessive GWG were significantly associated with abnormal lipid profiles in Saudi women after giving birth. We believe that future studies will help explore these associations in detail.

Highlights

The rapid economic development and urbanization in Saudi Arabia have resulted in a lifestyle of high-sugar and high-fat diet and reduced physical activity, contributing to the rising incidence of overweight and obesity, especially among women [1]
The frequency of cesarean sections was higher in women with overweight and obesity than in women with normal weight, and this can be attributed to the presence of excessive fat in soft tissues that reduce the rate of cervical dilatation, the need for a cesarean section delivery
It is of interest to examine the association between pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), gestational weight gain (GWG), and plasma fatty acid (FA) profiles in pregnant women

Summary

Introduction

The rapid economic development and urbanization in Saudi Arabia have resulted in a lifestyle of high-sugar and high-fat diet and reduced physical activity, contributing to the rising incidence of overweight and obesity, especially among women [1]. According to the recent Riyadh Mother and Baby Multicenter Cohort Study (RAHMA), the prevalence of overweight and obesity in women in Saudi Arabia is 68.5% [2], which is considerably higher than that in Western countries (30%) and is the highest worldwide [3,4]. Healthy women with a singleton pregnancy and who delivered at term (total gestation ≥ 37 weeks) without medical or obstetric complications were included. Pregnant women with medical conditions such as multiple gestations or chronic diseases were excluded from the study

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