Recommended Citation
Cassidy-Bushrow AE, Peters RM, Burmeister C, Bielak LF, and Johnson DA. Neighborhood-level poverty at menarche and prepregnancy obesity in African-American women. J Pregnancy 2016; 2016:4769121.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2016
Publication Title
J Pregnancy
Abstract
Introduction: Menarche is a critical time point in a woman's reproductive system development; exposures at menarche may influence maternal health. Living in a poorer neighborhood is associated with adult obesity; however, little is known if neighborhood factors at menarche are associated with prepregnancy obesity.
Methods: We examined the association of neighborhood-level poverty at menarche with prepregnancy body mass index category in 144 pregnant African-American women. Address at menarche was geocoded to census tract (closest to year of menarche); neighborhood-level poverty was defined as the proportion of residents living under the federal poverty level. Cumulative logistic regression was used to examine the association of neighborhood-level poverty at menarche, in quartiles, with categorical prepregnancy BMI.
Results: Before pregnancy, 59 (41%) women were obese. Compared to women in the lowest neighborhood-level poverty quartile, women in the highest quartile had 2.9 [1.2, 6.9] times higher odds of prepregnancy obesity; this was slightly attenuated after adjusting for age, marital status, education, and parity (odds ratio: 2.3 [0.9, 6.3]).
Conclusions: Living in a higher poverty neighborhood at menarche is associated with prepregnancy obesity in African-American women. Future studies are needed to better understand the role of exposures in menarche on health in pregnancy.
Medical Subject Headings
Adult; Black or African American; Body Mass Index; Female; Humans; Logistic Models; Menarche; Obesity; Odds Ratio; Poverty; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications; Residence Characteristics; Young Adult
PubMed ID
27418977
Volume
2016
First Page
4769121
Last Page
4769121
