Fish intake during pregnancy, fetal growth, and gestational length in 19 European birth cohort studies.

Vasiliki Leventakou , Theano Roumeliotaki , David Martinez , Henrique Barros (1) , Anne-Lise Brantsaeter , Maribel Casas (2) , Marie-Aline Charles , Sylvaine Cordier (3) , Merete Eggesbø (4) , Manon van Eijsden (5) , Francesco Forastiere , Ulrike Gehring (6) , Eva Govarts , Thorhallur I Halldórsson , Wojciech Hanke , Margaretha Haugen , Denise H M Heppe , Barbara Heude (7) , Hazel M Inskip , Vincent W V Jaddoe (8, 9) , Maria Jansen , Cecily Kelleher (10) , Helle Margrete Meltzer (11) , Franco Merletti (12) , Carolina Moltó-Puigmartí , Monique Mommers , Mario Murcia (13) , Andreia Oliveira , Sjúrður F Olsen , Fabienne Pele (3) , Kinga Polanska (14) , Daniela Porta (15) , Lorenzo Richiardi (16) , Siân M Robinson (17) , Hein Stigum , Marin Strøm , Jordi Sunyer (18, 19) , Carel Thijs (20) , Karien Viljoen , Tanja G M Vrijkotte (21) , Alet H Wijga , Manolis Kogevinas (18, 19) , Martine Vrijheid (2) , Leda Chatzi

1 University of Porto Medical School
2 Epidemiologia Ambiental
3 Irset - Institut de recherche en santé, environnement et travail
4 Division of Epidemiology
5 Department of Epidemiology, Documentation and Health Promotion
6 Risk Assessment Sciences Institute
7 CESP - Centre de recherche en épidémiologie et santé des populations
8 The Generation R Study group
9 Department of Epidemiology
10 UCD School of Public Health & Population Science
11 Leicester NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Cardiovascular Disease
12 Cancer Epidemiology Unit
13 iPLESP - Institut Pierre Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique
14 Department of Environmental Epidemiology
15 Department of Epidemiology
16 Cancer Epidemiology Unit
17 Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment
18 CREAL - Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology
19 IMIM-Hospital del Mar
20 Department of Epidemiology
21 Department of Public Health

Fish is a rich source of essential nutrients for fetal development, but in contrast, it is also a well-known route of exposure to environmental pollutants. We assessed whether fish intake during pregnancy is associated with fetal growth and the length of gestation in a panel of European birth cohort studies. The study sample of 151,880 mother-child pairs was derived from 19 population-based European birth cohort studies. Individual data from cohorts were pooled and harmonized. Adjusted cohort-specific effect estimates were combined by using a random- and fixed-effects meta-analysis. Women who ate fish >1 time/wk during pregnancy had lower risk of preterm birth than did women who rarely ate fish (≤ 1 time/wk); the adjusted RR of fish intake >1 but <3 times/wk was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.82, 0.92), and for intake ≥ 3 times/wk, the adjusted RR was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.84, 0.96). Women with a higher intake of fish during pregnancy gave birth to neonates with a higher birth weight by 8.9 g (95% CI: 3.3, 14.6 g) for >1 but <3 times/wk and 15.2 g (95% CI: 8.9, 21.5 g) for ≥ 3 times/wk independent of gestational age. The association was greater in smokers and in overweight or obese women. Findings were consistent across cohorts. This large, international study indicates that moderate fish intake during pregnancy is associated with lower risk of preterm birth and a small but significant increase in birth weight.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Vasiliki Leventakou, Theano Roumeliotaki, David Martinez, Henrique Barros, Anne-Lise Brantsaeter, et al.. Fish intake during pregnancy, fetal growth, and gestational length in 19 European birth cohort studies.. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2014, 99 (3), pp.506-16. ⟨10.3945/ajcn.113.067421⟩. ⟨hal-01118513⟩