Prenatal and perinatal risk factors for eating disorders in women: A population cohort study.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:The fetal programming model hypothesizes that developmental programming in utero and in early life induces adaptations that predetermine the adult phenotype. This study investigated whether prenatal/perinatal complications are associated with lifetime eating disorders in women. METHOD:Participants included 46,373 adult women enrolled in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (den norske Mor & barn-undersøkelsen [MoBa]). MoBa mothers and their mothers (MoBa grandmothers) were the focus of the current study. MoBa mothers with lifetime eating disorders were compared to a referent group. RESULTS:MoBa mothers who weighed more at birth (birth weight, adjusted odds ratio [OR]?=?1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.10-1.19) or were born large-for-gestational-age (adjusted OR?=?1.39; 95% CI: 1.27-1.52) were more likely to develop binge-eating disorder in later life. MoBa mothers who weighed less at birth were more likely to develop anorexia nervosa (birth weight, adjusted OR?=?0.88; 95% CI: 0.81-0.95). Bulimia nervosa and purging disorder (PD) were not significantly predicted by the prenatal and perinatal factors examined. DISCUSSION:Results of this study, which include the first known investigation of prenatal and perinatal factors in binge-eating disorder and PD, suggest that fetal programming may be relevant to the development of anorexia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. Future genetically informative research is needed to help disentangle whether these associations are a function of genetic influences or a true environmental fetal programming effect.

SUBMITTER: Watson HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6644683 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature