The relationship between diet, activity, and other factors, and postpartum weight change by race

Abstract

Higher energy intake and lower activity levels in black postpartum mothers compared with white mothers may contribute to the significantly higher rates of obesity found in black mothers. This study suggests the need for intervention strategies in the prenatal and postpartum periods to help those at risk of retaining weight gained during pregnancy.

The association of pregnancy and the development of obesity – results of a systematic review and meta-analysis on the natural history of postpartum weight retention

“…Tables 1-3 summarize the results of the qualitative analysis. Fifteen prospective studies, 23,24,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]38,[40][41][42][43][44][45] five retrospective studies, 22,[25][26][27][28]37,46 and the control group from a randomized controlled trial 39 were included in the final analysis. Studies in which women were recruited around the time of delivery and then followed prospectively for postpartum body weight (ambivalent design, as baseline weight was assessed retrospectively) 24,29,30,[34][35][36][44][45][46] were considered as prospective in design, as we wanted to focus on the development of postpartum weight change.…”

“…The majority of studies were conducted in North America [22][23][24]29,35,[37][38][39][40]42,45,46 and Europe, [25][26][27][28]34,36,41,43 where the magnitude of weight retention among women appears to be similar. 39 In developing countries, women retain less weight after pregnancy compared with women in developed countries.…”

“…44 (Table 1) All but one 34 study were published in English language. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] The study populations were mainly recruited from inpatients in departments of obstetrics. [24][25][26][31][32][33]35,36,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] There was a higher percentage of low-income women in the studies conducted in North America, but socio-economic status was thought to be homogeneous across studies.…”

“…We assume that the women in the other European studies and in the Australian study were predominantly white. [25][26][27][28]34,41,43 The population of eight studies consisted of different ethnical groups [22][23][24][31][32][33]39,42,45,46 (Table 1).…”

“…22,[27][28][29]34,35,45 Excluding studies in which gestational weight gain was measured at 36 weeks gestation or earlier, 23,39,41,42 the mean gestational weight gain was in the expected range, between BMI 4.7 36 and BMI 6.5 35 (Table 2).…”