Selected Lifestyle Practices in Urban African American Women—Relationships to Pregnancy Outcome, Dietary Intakes and Anthropometric Measurements

Abstract

The relationships of selected lifestyle factors (cigarette smoking, consumption of alcoholic beverages, recreational drug use, and exercise during pregnancy), all self-reported, to pregnancy outcomes, dietary intake during pregnancy, and maternal anthropometric measurements, were investigated in a group of urban African American pregnant women. The 234 subjects were aged 16-35 years and were free of diabetes and abnormal hemoglobins. The lifestyle data were collected by trained interviewers during the subjects' prenatal clinic visits, and the dietary data by monthly, quantitative 24-hour food recalls conducted during these same visits. Maternal anthropometric measurements were obtained from the subjects' hospital records, and pregnancy outcome data during physical examinations of the newborn infants. Both cigarette smoking and drug use were associated with significantly lower mean birth weight, length, and head circumference, while exercise was associated with a significantly higher mean birth weight, and head circumference (P < 0.05). Drug use during pregnancy was associated with a significantly higher intake of vitamin C, and a significantly lower intake of iron; while women reporting drug use before pregnancy had significantly higher mean intakes of food energy, protein, total and saturated fat, and zinc. Prepregnancy weight, percent ideal prepregnancy body weight, prepregnancy body mass index, and delivery weight were significantly lower among those reporting drug use before pregnancy. Multiple regression analyses indicated that smoking explained a relatively small proportion of the variance in infant birth weight compared with delivery weight and percent of ideal prepregnancy body weight.