Parental characteristics as predictors of birthweight

Abstract

Background: Previous studies provided conflicting results on the relevance of parental characteristics for offspring's size at birth. The objective of this study was to investigate parental predictors of birthweight.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 34,063 women in the Nurses' Mother's Cohort were queried about parental characteristics during the pregnancy with and birthweight of their nurse daughter.

Results: The predictive linear regression model of birthweight included 13 factors and the majority of the predictive power came from parental anthropometric factors. In the adjusted analysis, daily consumption of each additional glass of milk was associated with an increase of approximately 6 g in birthweight (P for trend = 0.01) and daily consumption of each additional cup of coffee was associated with a decrease of approximately 10 g in birthweight (P for trend < 0.0001). Drinking 1-2, 3-4 and 5+ cups of coffee daily was associated with a 28% [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.12, 0.47], 30% (95% CI 0.10, 0.55) and 63% (95% CI 0.25, 1.12) increase, respectively, in the odds of intrauterine growth restriction when compared with non-drinkers.

Conclusions: The present study confirmed several previously reported determinants of birthweight. Maternal dietary intake of milk and coffee during pregnancy may influence fetal growth.