Evaluation of Caffeine Consumption among Pregnant Women from Southern Poland

Abstract

Caffeine is the most widely consumed stimulant worldwide, including by pregnant women. Products containing caffeine should be limited in accordance with the recommendations for pregnancy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate consumption of caffeinated products and daily caffeine intake from food by pregnant women. The study was conducted on a group of healthy pregnant women: attendees of antenatal classes (n = 70) and patients of an outpatient gynecological clinic (n = 70) from Krakow (Southern Poland). A questionnaire about the frequency of consumption of selected foods and drinks containing caffeine was used. The average caffeine content in food products obtained from other Polish studies was used to estimate average daily caffeine intake in our study group. Mean daily caffeine intake was 49.60 ± 59.15 mg/day and the maximum was 498.0 mg/day. The main sources of caffeine were as follows: black tea (bags, leaf), instant coffee and ground coffee. No statistically significant differences in caffeine intake between the groups were found. A weak negative correlation (rs) = −0.28 (p = 0.0208) between month of pregnancy and caffeine intake was observed among attendees of antenatal classes. Mean daily caffeine intake did not exceed the maximum recommended dose in our study group.

Caffeine Intake During Pregnancy and Neonatal Anthropometric Parameters

“…To the best of our knowledge, only two studies on caffeine intake during pregnancy have been conducted in Poland so far, and both report optimistic findings. Mean daily caffeine intake was 91 mg/day according to the first study (conducted between 2005–2007) and 50 mg/day according to the second study (conducted between 2014–2015) [28,29]. The current result (68 mg from coffee, tea, and energy drinks) confirmed that consumption of caffeinated products by women in Poland during pregnancy is reasonable and non-excessive.…”

“…Tea, whose consumption was declared by 80% of the respondents in this study and 93% in another study, is decidedly more popular and continues to be the main source of caffeine in the diet of pregnant women from Poland [28]. In Poland, black tea is the most popular drink and the main source of daily caffeine intake (44–59% according to the earlier studies [28,29] and 50% according to the current study), and only a small amount is derived from green tea (5–16% according to the earlier studies [28,29] and 13% according to the current study). Tea is also the main source of caffeine in Great Britain [9] and Japan [22], although in Japan, most caffeine in the diet of pregnant women comes from green tea (75%), and only some from black tea (4%).…”

“…Until recently, the amount of over 300 mg of caffeine/day was considered excessive and such consumption was reported for 1.6% of the investigated women [28]. Lately however, the so-called ‘safe’ dose of caffeine was significantly lowered (to 200 mg), but still only 2% of our study population and 1.4% of the subjects in the study of Błaszczyk-Bębenek et al [29] exceeded the recommended dose. Mean caffeine intake among pregnant women in the US, Great Britain, and Sweden has been estimated at 58–125 mg, 159 mg, and 215 mg per day, respectively [9,31,32].…”

Association between self-reported caffeine intake during pregnancy and social responsiveness scores in childhood: The EARLI and HOME studies

“…When examining whether maternal pre-pregnancy BMI modified the association between caffeine intake and SRS T-scores, we categorized women as obese (BMI: ≥30 kg/m 2 ), overweight (BMI: 25-<30 kg/m 2 ), and normal weight (BMI: 18.5<25 kg/m 2 ) or underweight (BMI: <18.5 kg/m 2 ) [ 67 ]. In HOME, but not EARLI, we observed that pre-pregnancy BMI modified the association between caffeine intake and SRS T-scores (BMI category x caffeine interaction P value = 0.04) (S11 Table in S1 File ).…”

Drinks and Food Caffeine Consumption and Factors Associated With Higher Intakes. A Cohort Study In Pregnant Women

“…Previous studies conducted in New York [25] and United Kingdom [26] also used questionnaires to collect caffeine intake -Food Frequency Questionnaire and CAT Questionnaire. In the assessment of caffeine intake, other authors have considered, as we did, cola products and tea [27] or energy drinks and chocolate [2, 24,28].…”