Maternal and infant factors had a significant impact on birthweight and longitudinal growth in a South African birth cohort

Abstract

AimThis birth cohort study investigated longitudinal infant growth and associated factors in a multiethnic population living in a low‐resource district surrounding the town of Paarl in South Africa.MethodsBetween March 2012 and October 2014, all mothers attending their second trimester antenatal visit at Paarl Hospital were approached for enrolment. Mother–infant pairs were followed from birth until 12 months of age. Comprehensive socio‐demographic, nutritional and psychosocial data were collected at birth, two, six and 12 months. Infant anthropometry was analysed as z‐scores for weight and height. Linear regression was used to investigate predictors of birthweight, and linear mixed‐effects models were used to investigate predictors of infant growth.ResultsLongitudinal anthropometric data from 792 infants were included: 53% were Black African, 47% were mixed race, and 15% were born preterm. Stunting occurred in 13% of infants at 12 months. Maternal height, antenatal alcohol and tobacco use, ethnicity and socioeconomic status were significant predictors of birthweight. In the adjusted mixed‐effects model, birthweight was a significant predictor of growth during the first year of life.ConclusionBirthweight was an important predictor of growth trajectory during infancy. Birthweight and growth were influenced by several important modifiable factors.

The relationship between maternal food insecurity, fetal and postnatal growth: findings from the South African National Income Dynamics Study

“…The authors therefore used a cutoff of birthweight £2500g. The prevalence of LBW in the sample of 13.64% is closely aligned with recent cohort studies of birthweight in South Africa (22,28).…”

“…In addition to the primary exposure of the household food security score, we included variables associated with LBW and stunting in the literature in our models. These included both distal and proximate characteristics such as maternal age, height, BMI, smoking status, depression status measured using the CES-D scale (18), employment, years of education and self-reported health (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24). At the household level we included household size, individual food security domains, per capita food expenditure below the Stats SA Poverty level of R274 and geotype (urban, rural or traditional areas) as well as province of residence.…”

Alcohol consumption and its associated factors among pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis' as given in the submission system

“…In the final review, articles were published from 10 countries among 46 countries were included. Of these studies, eleven studies were found from Ethiopia [13,19,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], nine articles were from South Africa [20,22,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46], five articles were from Nigeria [18,[47][48][49][50], two studies were from Ghana [51,52], one article was from Kenya [53], three articles were from Tanzania [54][55][56], two studies were from Uganda [21,57] one study was from Burkina Faso [58], and one article was from Zambia [59]. Regarding the study designs, twenty-five (83%) of them were cross-sectional, three studies (3.5%) were cohort and three articles (3.5%) were case-control.…”

The relationship between antenatal food insecurity, fetal and postnatal growth: findings from the South African National Income Dynamics Study

“…Variables associated with stunting and severe stunting were combined in a nal multiple logistic regression model. (17,18).…”