Maternal Coffee Consumption During Pregnancy and Neural Tube Defects in Offspring: A Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT

Purpose To examine the association between maternal coffee consumption during pregnancy and the occurrence of neural tube defects (NTDs) in offspring. Methods PubMed, Springer Link and Elsevier databases were searched up to August, 2014. Case-control and cohort studies published on the association between maternal coffee consumption during pregnancy and the occurrence of NTDs in offspring were included. Meta-analysis was applied to calculate the pooled effect estimates and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using a random-effects model. Results A total of six case-control studies and one cohort study were included. The pooled effect estimate of maternal coffee consumption during pregnancy was 0.86 for total NTDs (95% CI: 0.51– 1.45) and 1.30 (95% CI: 0.67– 2.52) for NTDs subtype of spina bifida. Conclusions Our findings suggested that maternal coffee consumption during pregnancy was not significantly associated with the occurrence of total NTD or the spina bifida subtype of NTD.

Keywords:

• coffee
• meta-analysis
• neural tube defects
• pregnancy

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

The study was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2010HM060).