Impact of nicotine and maternal BMI on fetal birth weight

Abstract

Background According to the World Health Organization, smoking is the most important risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes in industrialized nations. As the individual factors (body mass index – BMI (kg/m2) – and cigarette consumption) have been extensively investigated in pregnancy, we aimed to establish how maternal BMI and nicotine interact with regard to perinatal outcomes and birth weight. Methods Data from 110.047 singleton pregnancies, achieved from the German Perinatal Survey in Schleswig-Holstein and registered between 2010 and 2017 were analyzed in August 2018 concerning maternal BMI and smoking. The BMI was taken from the maternity log. Information concerning the smoking status were self-reported and further subdivided into the following four categories: a) non-smokers; b) 1–7 cigarettes/day; c) 8–14 cigarettes/ day; and d) ≥ 15 cigarettes/ day. Furthermore, we classified women by their BMI into underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. Comparisons between non-smokers and the respective smoking group, and their relationship with maternal BMI were performed by the t-test (birth weight). A P-value ≤0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. Results A number of 97.092 women (88.2%) were non-smokers and 12.955 (11.8%) were smokers. Furthermore 10.3% of women of normal weight smoked during pregnancy, but both high and low BMI were associated with a high prevalence of smoking. The proportion of smokers was highest (18.1%) among underweight women (BMI ≤ 18.5 kg/m2). A large number of smokers (15.5%) were registered in the obesity group (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2). Mean birth weight (≥ 37 + 0 gestational age) increased with increasing maternal BMI, and was reduced by smoking for every BMI category. The differences between smokers and non-smokers were always highly significant (p < 0.001). Mean birth weight varied between 2995 g in underweight frequent smokers and 3607 g in obese non-smokers. Conclusion Both maternal BMI and smoking during pregnancy influences the birth weight and therefore pregnancy outcome. Smoking during pregnancy was significantly associated with low birth weight. Pregnant women should be advised to cease or at least reduce smoking in order to improve the birth weight of the newborn and to minimize child morbidities.

The influence of the socioeconomic status and maternal serum lipids on lipid concentrations and anthropometry in the first year of life

“…Likewise, Wang et al, who also carried out the determination of the lipids in the 24th and 36th week of pregnancy, we were able to show that the HDL concentration of the mothers is inversely correlated with the birth weight of the newborns [21], whereby we were able to show that the HDL concentration also seems to in uence growth and weight in the longer term up to the rst year of life. The in uence of maternal BMI on birth weight [24] and the correlation to SES [25] has already been shown in other studies. However, no study could be found that examined the in uence of maternal BMI or serum lipid levels on anthropometric markers other than birth height or weight, as shown here.…”

Effects of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus on Cholesterol Metabolism in Women with High-Risk Pregnancies: Possible Implications for Neonatal Outcome

“…Of note, maintaining desirable lifestyle habits should not be limited to the period of gestation, since numerous evidence suggests that preconception health could be even more important for ensuring favorable pregnancy course and outcome [ 41 ]. Interestingly, we did not detect any significant differences in newborns’ weight with respect to maternal smoking habits, although a firm relationship between smoking before and during pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes was established by many previous studies [ 42 , 43 ]. Such atypical results could arise due to a small sample size in our study.…”

Maternal tobacco smoking and offspring autism spectrum disorder or traits in ECHO cohorts

“…Thus, these meta‐analyses suggest modest associations of maternal preconception/prenatal tobacco use with both poorer social communication skills and elevated risk for ASD. These findings add to the numerous other adverse outcomes associated with maternal smoking during gestation: higher risks for ectopic pregnancy (Gaskins et al, 2018 ; Handler et al, 1989 ; Stergachis et al, 1991 ), fetal loss (Flenady et al, 2011 ; Marufu et al, 2015 ; Pineles et al, 2014 ; Pineles et al, 2016 ), preterm delivery (Liu et al, 2020 ; Soneji & Beltrán‐Sánchez, 2019 ), and lower birthweight (Blatt et al, 2015 ; Günther et al, 2021 ; Pereira et al, 2017 ; Tayie & Powell, 2012 ), as well as childhood outcomes of asthma (Harju et al, 2016 ; McEvoy & Spindel, 2017 ; Neuman et al, 2012 ) and attention deficit‐hyperactivity disorder (Huang et al, 2018 ; Langley et al, 2005 ; Sourander et al, 2019 ).…”