Reported dietary intake in early pregnant compared to non-pregnant women – a cross-sectional study

Table 1 Characteristics in early pregnant women and a population based referent group

	Pregnant women			Referent women			Pregnant vs referent women
	<35 years	≥35 years		<35 years	≥35 years		Pregnant vs referent women
	(n = 176)	(n = 33)	p-value	(n = 103)	(n = 103)	p-value	p-value
Age (mean (95% CI))¹	29.2 (28.7 –29.7)	37.0 (36.4-37.6)	-	30.1 (30.0-30.2)	40.0 (40.0 – 40.0)	-	<0.001⁴
Married or cohabitant (%)²	94.5	100	0.359	90.3	75.5	0.001	0.302
Education (% with university)²	59.5	77.4	0.059	35.9	60.8	<0.001	<0.001
BMI (mean (95% CI))¹	24.1 (23.3-24.8)	25.0 (23.3-26.8)	0.330	25.9 (24.8-26.9)	24.5 (23.4-25.6)	0.085	0.179
Normal weight BMI < 24.9 (%)²	71.4	61.3	0.354	54.4	68.9	0.099	0.096
Overweight BMI ≥25.0-29.9 (%)	20.5	32.3		29.1	19.4
Obese BMI ≥ 30.0 (%)	8.1	6.5		16.5	11.7
Smoking (% smoker)²	0.0	3.2	0.160	6.8	5.8	0.774	0.017
Snuff use (% user)²	1.2	0.0	1.000	17.5	7.8	0.036	<0.001
Alcohol g/day (median (min - max))³	0.11 (0-15.0)	1.8 (0-13.7)	0.028	1.8 (0-21.2)	2.5 (0-19.4)	<0.001	<0.001
Alcohol No (%)²	38.6	21.2	0.041	12.6	4.9	0.040	<0.001
Low physical activity at work (%)²	27.3	45.5	0.037	25.2	34.0	0.170	0.330
Low physical activity at leisure activity (%)²	57.1	60.0	0.771	56.3	38.9	0.012	0.237
Low physical activity at work and leisure time (%)²	15.9	27.3	0.117	21.4	15.5	0.281	0.868

¹Differences between means were tested with two-sided Student's t-test. Means for BMI in age groups were adjusted for education level using a generalized linear model. For comparisons between all pregnant and referent women mean values were adjusted for education and age group using a generalized linear model.
²Differences in sampling distribution were tested with Pearson's Chi-square test or Fischer's exact test if five or fewer observations in a cell; For BMI groups (normal weight, overweight, obesity) differences in sample distribution were tested among all tree levels.
³Data, which are based on FFQ information, were not normally distributed. Differences between age groups were tested with Mann-Whitney U test.
⁴The difference in mean age between pregnant and referent women was statistically significant in both age strata (p < 0.01).

ISSN: 1471-2393