Investigating The Relationship between the Consumption of Maternal Nutrition Supplements during Pregnancy and Anthropometric Indices in the Birth of a Newborn in Southern Iran (Case study: Bandar Abbas)

Background & Objectives: inappropriate diet and the lack of necessary nutrition receiving during pregnancy, effects on maternal and neonatal health. This study carried out to investigate the effect of maternal supplements during pregnancy on growth indices at birth. Material & Methods: This cohort study was carried out on part of Bandar Abbas Cohort study data. The main exposure in this study was the consumption of dietary supplements during pregnancy and the dependent variable was the growth indices of newborns. The adjusted relative risk index using a Modified Poisson Regression model was applied. All analysis were performed using the STATA software. Results: 196 of participants remained in the study. The age range of mothers was from 16 to 42 years old and the mean of that was 27.28 (± 5.62). 81, 84 and 149 of mothers had taken an iron supplement, multivitamins, and vitamin D irregularly respectively. 12.76%, 8.68%,18.88% of the newborns, had abnormal weight, height, and head circumference at birth respectively. The relative risk of low birth weight and consumption of multivitamin 2.65 was achieved. Also, the relative risks between low birth height and iron and multivitamin supplements were 3.54 and 4.56 respectively. Conclusion: There was a relationship between irregular consumption of iron and multivitamins during pregnancy with weight and height at birth, but there was no relationship between the consumption of nutritional supplements during pregnancy and the head circumference. Mothers' nutritional supplementation during pregnancy requires more attention.