ResearchObstetricsVitamin D status in early pregnancy and risk of preeclampsia
Section snippets
Cohort design, participant recruitment, and blood collection
This nested case-control study originated from separate Canadian cohort studies of pregnant women recruited in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and in Quebec City, Quebec. Blood samples were collected <20 weeks of gestation prior to diagnosis of PE.
In Halifax, Nova Scotia, pregnant women attending the blood collection services laboratory for routine prenatal blood screening were invited to participate <20 weeks of gestation, based on self-report and if they were planning on delivering at the Izaak Walton
Participants’ characteristics
Of the number of cohort participants (9220: 2036 from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and 7184 from Quebec City, Quebec), 169 (1.8%) developed PE. Table 1 presents the characteristics of the study population by case-control status. There were no significant differences between mothers who developed PE and mothers who did not develop PE in terms of age, marital status, education, family income, infant sex, smoking in pregnancy, caffeine consumption, physical activity, and living in an urban or rural area.
Comment
This nested case-control study aimed to determine the association between low vitamin D status in early pregnancy and the subsequent diagnosis of PE. Maternal vitamin D deficiency, defined as 25(OH)D <30 nmol/L, was associated with a doubled odds of PE compared to concentrations >50 nmol/L. This relationship was significant both before and after adjustment for factors known to be related to PE and/or vitamin D status including maternal age, nulliparity,28 season,10, 25 and prepregnancy BMI.14,
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2022, Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyCitation Excerpt :Vitamin D deficiency is a widespread health problem globally. Resent epidemiology studies revealed that low maternal vitamin D levels in early pregnancy is associated with increased incidence of preeclampsia [1–3] and suggest that vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency in pregnancy is a risk factor for preeclampsia development. However, reports from clinical trials and epidemiological studies on vitamin D supplementation in prevention and reduction of incidence of preeclampsia are inconsistent.
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The authors acknowledge the Canadian Institute of Health Research for funding the study.
The authors report no conflict of interest.
Cite this article as: Achkar M, Dodds L, Giguère Y, et al. Vitamin D status in early pregnancy and risk of preeclampsia. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2015;212:511.e1-7.