Risk of Smaller Infants Increases with an Eating Disorder

The risk of having a low-birth-weight infant or a small-for-gestational-age infant is dramatically increased in women with eating disorders, according to a team at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark (Am J Obstet Gynecol 2004; 190:206).

Dr. C. P. Sollid and colleagues used a register-based follow-up study to evaluate 302 women who were hospitalized with an eating disorder before becoming pregnant. This group of women produced 504 children, and was compared with a control group of 900 women without eating disorders who delivered a total of 1552 children. The association of eating disorders, birth weight, and gestational age was assessed by means of bivariate and multivariate analyses.

The risk of having a low-birth-weight infant was twice as great in women with a previous eating disorder as in women with no history of an eating disorder. The risk of delivering a preterm infant or a small-for-gestational-age infant was increased to 70% and 80%, respectively, among women with a history of an eating disorder.