Does emigration by itself improve birth weight? Study in European newborns of Indo-Pakistan origin

José Morales-Roselló; Silvia Buongiorno; Gabriela Loscalzo; Elisa Scarinci; Tiran Dias; Paolo Rosati; Antonio Lanzone; Alfredo Perales Marín

doi:10.1016/j.jmh.2023.100165

Does emigration by itself improve birth weight? Study in European newborns of Indo-Pakistan origin

J Migr Health. 2023 Feb 1:7:100165. doi: 10.1016/j.jmh.2023.100165. eCollection 2023.

Authors

José Morales-Roselló^{1

2}, Silvia Buongiorno¹, Gabriela Loscalzo¹, Elisa Scarinci³, Tiran Dias⁴, Paolo Rosati³, Antonio Lanzone³, Alfredo Perales Marín^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Servicio de Obstetricia, Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia, Spain.
² Departamento de Pediatría, Obstetricia y Ginecología, Universidad de Valencia, Spain.
³ Department of Scienze della Salute della Donna, del Bambino e di Sanità Pubblica" della Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
⁴ Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama and Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

Abstract

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate the effect of emigration on fetal birth weight (BW) in a group of pregnant women coming from the Indian subcontinent.

Methods: This was a retrospective study in a mixed population of pregnant women from the Indian subcontinent that either moved to Europe or stayed in their original countries. The influence of emigration along with several pregnancy characteristics: GA at delivery, fetal gender, maternal age, height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and parity on BW was evaluated by means of multivariable linear regression analysis.

Results: According to European standards, babies born to Indo-Pakistan emigrants and babies born to women staying in the Indian subcontinent were similarly small (BW centile 30± 29 and 30.1 ± 28, p<0.68). Multivariable regression demonstrated that emigration by itself did not exert a direct influence on BW (p = 0.27), being BMI and gestational age at delivery the true determinants of BW (p<0.0001).

Conclusions: Maternal BMI is the most relevant parameter affecting fetal growth regardless of the place of residence.

Keywords: Birth weight; Ethnicity; Fetal growth; Maternal nutrition; Migration.