Yang Liping, Wang Zifu, Cao Lei, Li Yuqing, Wang Jingyan, Ding Shuyu, Mao Baohong
Department of Public Health and Infection Management, Gansu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Gansu, Lanzhou, China.
School of Public Health, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Gansu, Lanzhou, China.
PeerJ. 2025 Aug 18;13:e19896. doi: 10.7717/peerj.19896. eCollection 2025.
The association between maternal iron/zinc intake and the risk of low birth weight (LBW) in infants is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of iron and zinc daily intake preconception and during pregnancy on the risk of delivering LBW babies and to assess whether there is an interaction between iron and zinc intake on the risk of LBW.
A nested case-control study was performed, including 565 cases and 7,510 controls in Lanzhou City, China. Eligible participants were interviewed about their diets and characteristics during pregnancy. Unconditional logistic regression was used to determine the association between dietary iron/zinc intake and the risk of LBW and its clinical subtypes. Multivariate-adjusted restricted cubic spline (RCS) models were applied to explore the nonlinear association between dietary iron/zinc intake levels and the risk of LBW.
Lower intake of iron/zinc preconception and during pregnancy was associated with a higher risk of LBW and some subtypes, and there was a nonlinear trend between iron/zinc intake and the occurrence risk of LBW ( < 0.05). Moreover, the synergistic effects of low iron and low zinc intake on the risk of LBW were found.
Efforts to promote iron and zinc intake preconception and during pregnancy need to be strengthened to reduce the local incidence of LBW.
母亲铁/锌摄入量与婴儿低出生体重（LBW）风险之间的关联仍不明确。本研究旨在调查孕前和孕期每日铁和锌摄入量对分娩低出生体重儿风险的影响，并评估铁和锌摄入量之间是否存在对低出生体重风险的相互作用。
进行了一项巢式病例对照研究，纳入了中国兰州市的565例病例和7510例对照。符合条件的参与者接受了关于其孕期饮食和特征的访谈。采用无条件逻辑回归来确定膳食铁/锌摄入量与低出生体重风险及其临床亚型之间的关联。应用多变量调整的受限立方样条（RCS）模型来探索膳食铁/锌摄入量水平与低出生体重风险之间的非线性关联。
孕前和孕期铁/锌摄入量较低与低出生体重及某些亚型的较高风险相关，且铁/锌摄入量与低出生体重发生风险之间存在非线性趋势（<0.05）。此外，发现低铁和低锌摄入量对低出生体重风险有协同作用。
需要加强孕前和孕期促进铁和锌摄入的措施，以降低当地低出生体重的发生率。
