ArticleBMJ open2015
Obesity in pregnancy: infant health service utilisation and costs on the NHS.
Article in BMJ open, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Economic burden of maternal morbidity - A systematic review of cost-of-illness studies.PloS one · 2020Pooled it
- Cost-effectiveness of a mobile health-supported lifestyle intervention for pregnant women with an elevated body mass index.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2020Trial
- Delivering optimal weight gain advice to pregnant women by lead maternity carer midwives in a real-world setting to optimise health outcomes (DOT study): a case study protocol.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Study of How Adiposity in Pregnancy has an Effect on outcomeS (SHAPES): protocol for a prospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Article
- Maternal Diet Quality, Body Mass Index and Resource Use in the Perinatal Period: An Observational Study.Nutrients · 2020Observational
- Maternal health and non-communicable disease prevention: An investment case for the post COVID-19 world and need for better health economic data.International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics · 2020Article
- Cohort study of high maternal body mass index and the risk of adverse pregnancy and delivery outcomes in Scotland.BMJ open · 2020Article
- Maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and health care utilization and costs in the offspring.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2019Article
- Overweight and obese pre-pregnancy BMI is associated with higher hospital costs of childbirth in England.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2018Article
- A randomized controlled trial to prevent excessive gestational weight gain and promote postpartum weight loss in overweight and obese women: Health In Pregnancy and Postpartum (HIPP).Contemporary clinical trials · 2018Article
- High level of hemoglobin, white blood cells and obesity among Sudanese women in early pregnancy: a cross-sectional study.Future science OA · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo estimate the direct healthcare cost of infants born to overweight or obese mothers to the National Health Service in the UK.
designRetrospective prevalence-based study.
settingCombined linked anonymised electronic data sets on a cohort of mother-child pairs enrolled on the Growing Up in Wales: Environments for Healthy Living (EHL) study. Infants were categorised according to maternal early-pregnancy body mass index (BMI): healthy weight mother (18.5≤BMI<25 kg/m(2); n=342), overweight mother (25≤BMI≤29.9 kg/m(2); n=157) and obese mother (BMI≥30; n=110).
participants609 singleton pregnancies with available health service records and an antenatal maternal BMI. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: Total health service utilisation and direct healthcare costs for providing these services in the year 2012-2013. Costs are calculated as cost of the infant (no maternal costs considered) and are related to health service usage from birth to age 1 year.
resultsA strong association existed between healthcare usage cost and BMI (p<0.001). Mean total costs were 72% higher among children born to obese mothers (rate ratio (RR) 1.72, 95% CI 1.71 to 1.73) compared with infants born to healthy weight mothers. Higher costings were attributed to a significantly greater number (RR 1.39, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.84) and duration (RR 1.55, 95% CI 1.37 to 1.74) of inpatient visits and a higher number of general practitioner visits (RR 1.10, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.16). Total mean additional resource cost was estimated at £65.13 for infants born to overweight mothers and £1138.11 for infants born to obese mothers, when compared with infants of healthy weight mothers.
conclusionsIncreasingly infants born to mothers with high BMIs consume additional health service resources in the first year of life; this was apparent across inpatient and general practitioner services. Considering both maternal and infant health service use, interventions that cost less than £2310 per person in reducing obesity early pregnancy could be cost-effective.
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