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Pre-pregnancy caffeine and caffeinated beverage intake and risk of spontaneous abortion

Audrey J Gaskins^1,2, Janet W Rich-Edwards^3,4,5, Paige L Williams^3,6

¹Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Building II 3rd Floor, 655 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. agaskins@hsph.harvard.edu.

European Journal of Nutrition

|August 31, 2016

Purpose:

To investigate the relation between pre-pregnancy caffeine and caffeinated beverage intake and risk of spontaneous abortion (SAB).

Methods:

Our prospective cohort study included 15,590 pregnancies from 11,072 women with no history of SAB in the Nurses' Health Study II (1991-2009). Beverage intake was assessed every 4 years using a validated questionnaire. Pregnancies were self-reported with case pregnancies lost spontaneously at <20 weeks gestation. Multivariable log-binomial regression models with generalized estimating equations were used to estimate the relative risks (RRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs).

Results:

There was a positive linear trend across categories of pre-pregnancy caffeine intake and risk of SAB such that women consuming >400 mg/day had 1.11 (95 % CI 0.98, 1.25) times the risk of SAB compared to women consuming <50 mg/day (p trend = 0.05). Total coffee intake had a positive, linear association with SAB. Compared to women with no pre-pregnancy coffee intake, women consuming ≥4 servings/day had a 20 % (6, 36 %) increased risk of SAB (p trend = 0.01). There was no difference in the association between caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee and risk of SAB. Pre-pregnancy intake of caffeinated tea, caffeinated soda, and decaffeinated soda had no association with SAB.

Conclusions:

Pre-pregnancy coffee consumption at levels ≥4 servings/day is associated with increased risk of SAB, particularly at weeks 8-19.

Keywords:

Caffeine Coffee Miscarriage Pregnancy Spontaneous abortion

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