Association Between Household Food Environment and Excessive Gestational Weight Gain

Understanding the role of home food environment on gestational weight gain (GWG) may provide a useful weight management strategy to help reduce excessive GWG.

Pregnant women recruited between 2011 and 2014 (N = 165; normal weight N = 65, overweight N = 62, obese N = 38) in Arkansas completed measures of high-fat food availability, low-fat food availability, and food storage practices at baseline (4-10 weeks) and 30 weeks gestation. GWG was calculated as the difference between weight at the first (4-10 weeks) and final (36 weeks) prenatal visit, and based on each participant's baseline body mass index (BMI) category, GWG was classified as being above or within the 2009 Institute of Medicine's GWG guidelines. Multivariable models were adjusted for mother's age, race, marital status, and household income.

There were no significant relationships between gaining above the guidelines and the home food environment variables. At baseline, after adjusting for covariates, overweight and obese pregnant women stored significantly more foods visibly in their home compared to normal weight women (overweight: β: 0.30, standard error [SE]: 0.13, p = 0.01; obese: β: 0.28, SE: 0.14, p = 0.04). At 30 weeks, obese pregnant women had significantly fewer low-fat foods in the home (β: -0.17; SE: 0.08, p = 0.04), although after adjusting for covariates, this relationship became a nonsignificant trend (p = 0.08). There were no significant relationships between BMI category and number of high-fat foods in the home.

These findings are consistent with other studies in nonpregnant populations that demonstrate that home food environment may influence weight status of overweight and obese pregnant women, although we did not find a significant relationship between the home food environment and GWG.