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Demographic Profile, Methodology, and Biochemical Correlates During the Course of Pregnancy¹

Cecile H. Edwards², Enid M. Knight, Allan A. Johnson, Ura Jean Oyemade, O. Jackson Cole^*, George Nolan^***,3, Ouida E. Westney, William L. West^*, Haziel Laryea^**, Priscilla Hilliard^**, Masoud Nahavandi^**, Bernice G. Spurlock^**, Malcolm Manning^*, Hutchinson James^*, Selina Smith^**, Sidney Jones and Lennox S. Westney^***

Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of Allied Health Sciences Department of Human Development, School of Education ^*** Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology ^* Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine ^** Nutrition Program Project ^* Howard University D. C. General Hospital; Howard University Hospital, Washington, D. C. 20059

This five-year prospective, observational study of urban women during their pregnancies was initiated in 1985 with the recruitment of women between the ages of 18 and 35 years in the prenatal clinics of Howard University Hospital and the District of Columbia Department of Human Services. The objective of the investigation was to characterize African American women by nutritional, biochemical, medical, sociocultural, psychological, lifestyle, and environmental parameters which could be used to formulate interventions to improve pregnancy outcomes. The women were all nulliparous, free of diabetes and abnormal hemoglobins, such as sickle cell disease, and no more than 28 weeks pregnant. During the early course of the study, it was apparent that 96% of the low income clinic patients had delivered infants of normal birth weight (2500 g), P = 0.001. Recruitment was then initiated at the District of Columbia General Hospital; women 16 and 17 years of age and at any gestational stage were included.

This paper is the first in the series on African American women and their pregnancies. It will present the demographic characteristics of this regular cohort of 443 women who delivered live infants, the methodology used for biochemical, dietary, and psychosocial data sets, the mean values for infant gestational age, head circumference, body length, and birth weight from singleton births, and correlates of the mean values of biochemical variables for three trimesters of pregnancy with other biochemical parameters and those pregnancy outcomes.

KEY WORDS: • low income • pregnancy • African American women

¹ The investigations reported in this paper were made as part of the program project "Nutrition, Other Factors and the Outcome of Pregnancy," supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, through a grant in 1985 to the Department of Human Nutrition and Food, School of Human Ecology, Howard University. Guest Editor for this supplement volume to The Journal of Nutrition was Cecile H. Edwards, Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of Allied Health Sciences, Howard University, Washington, D.C. 20059. Tapes of the data are available at cost by sending a written request to the Guest Editor at the above address. Supported by Grant 3 PO1 HD17104-05, ENG, NICHD, NIH.

² Author responsible for proofs and correspondence: Dr. Cecile H. Edwards, 3910 44th Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20016 Telephone Number: (202) 806-6238; Fax Number: (202) 806-7918.

³ Current Address: George H. Nolan, M. D., M. P. H., Division of Maternal/Fetal Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan 48202.