Maternal Cardiometabolic Health and Fetal Development: Insights from Prenatal to Postnatal Life

Identificador:  TDX:4476

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX4476

Autors:  Motevalizadeh, Ehsan

Resum:
This dissertation explores the complex relationships between maternal lifestyle behaviors, cardiometabolic risk markers during pregnancy, and fetal growth. Unlike previous research focused on individual risk factors like glucose, lipids, and blood pressure, this study examines a composite cardiometabolic risk score (CCRs), the impact of parity on early-pregnancy insulin resistance (IR), and how maternal cardiometabolic markers affect infant size. The research includes three articles based on data from the ECLIPSES study, involving healthy pregnant women during the first (T1) and third (T3) trimesters. It collected demographic, gynecological, anthropometric, lifestyle, dietary, and biochemical data. Multivariable-adjusted linear and logistic regression analyses were used to examine associations between prenatal factors and maternal cardiometabolic markers and their impact on fetal growth indicators like birth weight and head circumference. A positive association was found between the T1 CCRs and maternal overweight/obesity, while higher education levels and physical activity were negatively associated. These trends continued into T3, with insufficient gestational weight gain and higher social class linked to lower CCRs. Higher parity significantly affected IR, with multiparous women showing increased insulin levels and a higher HOMA-IR index. Overweight/obesity further amplified these risks.