Sociocultural and behavioral influences on weight gain during pregnancy1234

https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/71.5.1364sGet rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

ABSTRACT

Studies have consistently identified a positive association between prenatal weight gain and birth weight. Much less, however, is known about factors that may influence women to gain weight within currently recommended ranges. The importance of this issue is suggested by recent reports indicating that only 30–40% of women actually gain weight within these ranges. This paper examines demographic, sociocultural, and behavioral factors that are associated with, and may influence risk of, low prenatal weight gain among adult women with low and normal body mass indexes. Available data suggest that these factors include ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, education, pregnancy intendedness or wantedness, prenatal advice, and psychosocial characteristics such as attitude toward weight gain, social support, depression, stress, anxiety, and self-efficacy. Potential theoretical models for these associations include biological, behavioral, and mixed pathways. The design of targeted intervention studies will depend on further identification and characterization of sociocultural and behavioral risk factors that, along with reproductive and nutritional characteristics, may predict which women are most likely to have inadequate prenatal weight gain.

KEY WORDS

Prenatal weight gain
demographics
socioeconomics
culture
psychosocial risk factors
behavioral risk factors
pregnancy weight gain
birth weight

Cited by (0)

1

From the Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham.

2

Presented at the symposium Maternal Nutrition: New Developments and Implications, held in Paris, June 11–12, 1998.

3

Supported by Maternal and Child Health grant MCJ-9040, Center for Research and Information on Nutrition, Paris.

4

Reprints not available. Address correspondence to CA Hickey, 320 Ryals Public Health Building, 1665 University Boulevard, Birmingham, AL 35294-0022. E-mail: [email protected].