Gestational weight gain and eating-related disorders

Abstract

This prospective cohort study took place at the Division of Perinatal Medicine of Policlinico Abano Terme, Italy, from January to November 2018. In the second day postpartum, 463 healthy at term puerperae, 122 (26.35%) with inadequate gestational weight gain (GWG), 210 (45.46%) with adequate GWG, and 131 (28.29%) with excessive GWG, were studied by EAT-26, through distinguishing three factors: ‘Dieting’, ‘Bulimia and food preoccupation’, and ‘Oral control’. EAT-26 Global score increased from inadequate, to adequate, and excessive GWG puerperae, resulting significantly higher in excessive GWG group (p = .0029, Anova’s). In addition, among EAT-26 subscales ‘Dieting’ scores significantly increased from inadequate, to adequate, and to excessive GWG category women, resulting significantly higher in excessive GWG group (p = .006, Anova’s). It was found that excessive GWG is a warning indicator of unhealthy eating and ‘Dieting’ disorders. This relationship highlights the potential for interventions directed towards psychosocial support to have salutary effects upon GWG.

Excessive gestational weight gain across an uncomplicated pregnancy is a warning indicator of unhealthy eating and dieting disorders.

IMPACT STATEMENT

• What is already known on this subject? Pregnancy represents a time of rapid trimester-specific changes in body weight and size.

• What do the results of this study add? Excessive gestational weight gain is a warning indicator of unhealthy eating and dieting disorders.

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? This relationship highlights the potential for interventions directed towards psychosocial support to have salutary effects upon gestational weight gain.

Keywords:

• Body mass index
• BMI
• eating attitudes test-26
• eat-26
• eating and feeding disorders
• gestational weight gain
• GWG

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the Policlinico Abano Terme, Italy. All participants were given an information sheet and they were included in the study only once signed the consent form.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

VZ carried out the study, LG and GS participated in the design of the study, and EG performed the statistical analysis. MP and AFC participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Availability of data and materials

The data supporting our findings can be found in the Archives of the Policlinico Abano Terme, stored in electronic format.