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Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes
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Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes

Published on: June 28, 2024

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Associations Between Prenatal Food Insecurity and Prematurity, Pediatric Health Care Utilization, and Postnatal

Vida S Sandoval1, Ashaki Jackson2, Erin Saleeby3

  • 1David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (VS Sandoval and E Saleeby), Los Angeles, Calif.

Academic Pediatrics
|November 30, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Prenatal food insecurity in low-income mothers significantly increases risks for premature birth, higher healthcare use, and missed immunizations in children. Identifying food insecurity during prenatal care can help address these risks early.

Area of Science:

  • Public Health
  • Pediatrics
  • Sociology

Background:

  • Childhood food insecurity negatively impacts development and health.
  • Prenatal care offers a critical window to identify at-risk families.
  • The pandemic is expected to exacerbate food insecurity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To describe longitudinal relationships between prenatal food insecurity and adverse child outcomes.
  • To examine links between clinically-identified prenatal food insecurity and prematurity, healthcare utilization, and postnatal social needs.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal data from 268 mother-child dyads at a safety-net medical center (Oct 2018-July 2019).
  • Analysis of associations between household food insecurity and birth outcomes, healthcare utilization, immunizations, and social needs.
  • Adjusted regression models were used.

Main Results:

  • Prenatal food insecurity was linked to 3x higher odds of premature birth (P=.05).
  • Children of food-insecure mothers had higher inpatient hospitalizations (IRR 2.4, P=.04) and missed immunizations (IRR 3.4, P=.03) in the first 6 months.
  • Mothers with food insecurity had higher odds of reporting any social needs (OR 3.4, P=.004).

Conclusions:

  • Prenatal household food insecurity is associated with adverse perinatal and pediatric outcomes.
  • Food insecurity identifies children facing social and medical risks.
  • Early clinical identification of food insecurity enables timely intervention.
Abstract

Keywords:
childhood food insecuritymaternal child healthprenatal food insecurity

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