American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on July 13, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 166(6):687-696; doi:10.1093/aje/kwm133
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ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Is High Consumption of Fatty Fish during Pregnancy a Risk Factor for Fetal Growth Retardation? A Study of 44,824 Danish Pregnant Women
1 Maternal Nutrition Group, Department of Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
2 Division of Environmental Medicine, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
3 Unit for Nutrition Research, Landspítali University Hospital and University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
4 Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Faculty of Science, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
5 Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
Correspondence to Thorhallur Ingi Halldorsson, Department of Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institut, 5 Artillerivej, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark (e-mail: lur{at}ssi.dk).
Received for publication October 19, 2006. Accepted for publication March 19, 2007.
The authors examined the relation between fish consumption during pregnancy and fetal growth among 44,824 women from the Danish National Birth Cohort (1996–2002). They evaluated the associations between consumption of total fish, fatty fish, and lean fish in midpregnancy and birth weight, birth length, and head circumference among singleton full-term infants. Fish consumption was ascertained by food frequency questionnaire. The birth of infants classified below the 10th percentile for gestational age and gender was significantly increased among women who consumed more than 60 g of fish per day, as compared with women who consumed 5 g or less per day. Adjusted odds ratios were 1.24 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 1.49) for birth weight and 1.21 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.43) for head circumference. The adjusted odds ratio was borderline significant for birth length (odds ratio = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.45). These increases in risk were followed by small decreases in average values for these growth measures. Furthermore, the inverse association for total fish consumption could be explained by consumption of fatty fish, while no association was found for lean fish. These results indicate that consumption of fatty fish, a known route of exposure to persistent organic pollutants, could be associated with reduced fetal growth.
birth weight; Denmark; diet; fetal development; fishes; pregnancy; seafood
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; DHA, docosahexaenoic acid; EPA, eicosapentaenoic acid