Global Health and Migration Unit, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Maternal and Child Health Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Glob Health Action. 2024 Dec 31;17(1):2375829. doi: 10.1080/16549716.2024.2375829. Epub 2024 Jul 9.
Chewing betel quid (BQ) - a preparation commonly containing areca nut and slaked lime wrapped in betel leaf - is entrenched in South Asia. Although BQ consumption during pregnancy has been linked to adverse birth outcomes, its effect on postnatal growth remains largely unexplored.
We examined the associations of BQ use during pregnancy with children's height-for-age and body mass index-for-age z-scores (HAZ and BAZ, respectively) and fat and fat-free mass along with sex-based differences in association in rural Bangladesh.
With a prospective cohort design, we assessed BQ use among mothers enrolled in the Preterm and Stillbirth Study, Matlab ( = 3140) with a structured questionnaire around early third trimester. Children born to a subset of 614 women (including 134 daily users) were invited to follow-up between October 2021 and January 2022. HAZ and BAZ were calculated from anthropometric assessment, and fat and fat-free mass were estimated using bioelectric impedance. Overall and sex-specific multiple linear regression models were fitted.
Growth data were available for 501 children (mean age 4.9 years): 43.3% of them were born to non-users, 35.3% to those using prior to or less-than-daily during the survey, and 21.3% to daily users. No statistically significant associations were observed after adjusting for sex, parity, maternal height and education, and household wealth.
There was no effect of BQ use during pregnancy on postnatal growth in this study. Longitudinal studies following up those born to heavy users beyond childhood are warranted for capturing long-term implications of prenatal BQ exposure.
咀嚼槟榔（BQ）——一种通常由槟榔果和熟石灰包裹在槟榔叶中的制剂——在南亚根深蒂固。尽管孕期咀嚼 BQ 与不良出生结局有关，但它对产后生长的影响在很大程度上仍未得到探索。
我们研究了孕期咀嚼 BQ 与儿童身高-年龄别 Z 评分（HAZ）和体重-年龄别 Z 评分（BAZ）以及农村孟加拉国基于性别的关联差异之间的关系。
采用前瞻性队列设计，我们评估了参与早产和死产研究的母亲中 BQ 的使用情况，该研究在 Matlab（ = 3140）中，在早期第三个三个月期间使用结构化问卷进行。从一组 614 名妇女（包括 134 名每日使用者）中邀请了部分儿童进行随访，随访时间为 2021 年 10 月至 2022 年 1 月。HAZ 和 BAZ 是根据人体测量评估计算得出的，而脂肪和去脂体重则使用生物电阻抗法估算。整体和基于性别的多重线性回归模型进行拟合。
501 名儿童（平均年龄 4.9 岁）的生长数据可用：43.3%的儿童来自非使用者，35.3%的儿童来自调查前或每日使用少于每日的使用者，21.3%的儿童来自每日使用者。调整性别、产次、母亲身高和教育程度以及家庭财富后，未观察到统计学上显著的关联。
在这项研究中，孕期咀嚼 BQ 与产后生长之间没有关系。需要对那些在儿童期后长期使用大量 BQ 的人进行纵向研究，以捕捉产前 BQ 暴露的长期影响。
