The Prevalence of Abnormal Body Mass Index (Bmi) and Comparison of the Who General and Asian Standard Bmi Classification Among First Trimester South Indian Women

Abstract

BACKGROUND Nutrition plays an important role in a woman's ability to sustain her pregnancy. Nearly 54% of Asian pregnant women were found to be at increased risk of inadequate energy intake. During pregnancy, a woman requires an extra 300-400 kcal/day, restriction of which leads to adverse maternal and foetal outcomes. Less is known about the impact of gestational weight gain in conjunction with BMI on perinatal outcomes in healthy pregnant women without other co-morbidities. The objectives of the study were to assess the prevalence of abnormal BMI in early pregnancy and to compare the two standards of BMI classification namely, the WHO classification for the general population and the revised classification for Asian Population. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was a prospective descriptive study. The study was done during the months of August and September 2016 in a tertiary care hospital in South India. All pregnant women who registered in the hospital for antenatal care, prior to 12 weeks and 6 days were recruited. The profiles of the enrolled pregnant women were collected using a proforma and the values of BMI for each class from the WHO general classification system was compared to the corresponding class of the WHO classification system for the Asian population. The sample size needed for this study was estimated to be 384, assuming a prevalence of 50%, absolute precision of 5% and 95% confidence interval.