(931) Food Desert Proximity and Gestational Weight Gain During Pregnancy

Friday, January 31, 2025

10:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Submitting Author and Presenting Author(s)

Taylor Martin, MS (she/her/hers)

Georgetown School of Medicine
Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Coauthor(s)

BA

Babatamilore Alade, BA

Georgetown University
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Mary Taylor Winsten, MD (she/her/hers)

Obstetrics and Gynecology Resident Physician
Medstar Washington Hospital Center
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
KM

Kylie Mulvaney, DO

MedStar Washington Hospital Center
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
FH

Felicia Hamilton, MD

Medstar Washington Hospital Center
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
AP

Alexandra Piselli, MD

Georgetown University
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Fatimah Z. Fahimuddin, MD

Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellow
MedStar Washington Hospital Center
Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Objective: A lack of access to healthy and nutritious food has been identified as an independent risk factor for pregnancy morbidity, but there is a lack of evidence outlining the relationship between gestational weight gain (GWG) and food desert (FD) proximity. In this study, we sought to evaluate the impact of living in FDs on GWG during pregnancy.

Study Design: This single-center, retrospective study examined patients undergoing cesarean delivery (CD) at MedStar Washington Hospital Center from July 2021 to December 2022. Exclusion criteria included multifetal gestation, prenatal care outside of our hospital system, and entry into prenatal care after 14 weeks of gestation. Patients were classified as having low food access (LFA) if they lived more than 1 mile (urban) or 10 miles (rural) from the nearest supermarket. GWG was defined as inadequate, adequate, or excessive weight gain based on pre-pregnancy BMI as delineated by ACOG recommendations. Multivariate multinomial logistic regression models compared patients with LFA and GWG as the primary outcome, adjusting for insurance type, marital status, and low income area.

Results: A total of 370 patients were included in the study, of whom 73 (19.7%) lived in an LFA neighborhood. Women in the LFA category had an average weight gain of 13.4 kg as compared to 11.84 kg for those that lived in food secure neighborhoods, although this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.105). When assessed by pre-pregnancy BMI category, we found a directional trend suggesting that living in LFA neighborhood was associated with excessive weight gain, but this result was also not statistically significant (aOR: 0.60 [0.324-1.101]).

Conclusion: Living in a LFA community showed no statistically significant correlation for excessive weight gain when compared to patient’s living in communities with adequate food access. This study emphasizes the need for further exploration of alternative factors that may be impacting the discrepancy in pregnancy morbidity in these populations.