ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2018
Overweight and obese pre-pregnancy BMI is associated with higher hospital costs of childbirth in England.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Economic burden of maternal morbidity - A systematic review of cost-of-illness studies.PloS one · 2020Pooled it
- The Economic Burden of Gestational Diabetes and Body Mass Index Changes Between Pregnancies: A Retrospective Cohort Study.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2026Article
- 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
- Characteristics of Glucose-Lipid Metabolism in Early Pregnancy Among Overweight and Obese Women and Their Predictive Value for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity : targets and therapy · 2024Article
- Study of How Adiposity in Pregnancy has an Effect on outcomeS (SHAPES): protocol for a prospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2023Article
- The Impact of Maternal Obesity on NICU and Newborn Nursery Costs.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Article
- Pregnancy weight gain may affect perinatal outcomes, quality of life during pregnancy, and child-bearing expenses: an observational cohort study.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2021Observational
- Effect of overweight/obesity on caesarean section occurrence among reproductive-aged women in Ethiopia: a secondary data analysis.BMJ nutrition, prevention & health · 2021Article
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2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundWomen who have an overweight or obese BMI are more likely to experience pregnancy complications. However, little is known on the cost of childbirth in this group and no studies have been undertaken in England to date. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate whether women with overweight and obese pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) incur higher average hospital costs of childbirth.
methodsWe employed data from 7564 women in the first wave of data collection of the Millennium Cohort Study. Using interval regression, we investigated the association between hospital costs of childbirth and pre-pregnancy BMI, fitting four models, progressively adjusting for additional potential confounders and mediators. Model 1 was a univariate model; model 2 adjusted for maternal age, education, marital status, ethnicity, income, and region; model 3 additionally included number of previous children, number of babies delivered, whether birth was at term, and type of delivery; model 4 also included length of hospital stay.
resultsChildbirth costs incurred by women who were overweight, obese class I and obese class II and III were £22, £82 and £126 higher than those incurred by women whose BMI was in the normal range (p ≤ 0.05). Delivery method, pre-term delivery, and length of hospital stay accounted for the observed difference.
conclusionsWomen with elevated pre-pregnancy BMI make greater use of services resulting in higher hospital costs. Interventions promoting healthy BMI in pre-pregnancy among women of child-bearing age have the potential to reduce pregnancy complications and be cost-effective.
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