ArticleCurrent developments in nutrition2020
Maternal Prenatal Psychosocial Stress and Prepregnancy BMI Associations with Fetal Iron Status.
Article in Current developments in nutrition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cortisol Stress Response is Associated with Iron Status in Pregnancy.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Dietary Interventions Targeting Maternal Obesity: Intergenerational Effects, Mechanisms, and Translational Insights.Current nutrition reports · 2026Review
- Placental iron transport under maternal stress: a missing link in foetal programming and mental health.EBioMedicine · 2026Article
- Air pollution and postpartum depression: the interplay with prenatal stress.Research square · 2026Article
- Maternal Prenatal Psychosocial Stress in Relation to Maternal and Neonatal Anemia.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- Gender predictors of adverse health.Journal of health psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- Newborn mitochondrial DNA copy number is associated with changes to DNA methylation that persist into childhood and are associated with cognitive development.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Article
- Maternal Prenatal Psychological Stress and Iron Levels in the Fetal Brain.Developmental psychobiology · 2025Article
- Effects of prenatal iron deficiency on neurological development and related disorders in offspring.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- Early life stress and iron metabolism in developmental psychoneuroimmunology.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- Exploring Depression and Nutritional Covariates Amongst US Adults using Shapely Additive Explanations.Health science reports · 2023Article
- Early-life adversity is associated with poor iron status in infancy.Development and psychopathology · 2023Article
- The Interaction between Psychological Stress and Iron Status on Early-Life Neurodevelopmental Outcomes.Nutrients · 2023Review
- Prenatal stress perturbs fetal iron homeostasis in a sex specific manner.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Are Essential Trace Elements Effective in Modulation of Mental Disorders? Update and Perspectives.Biological trace element research · 2022Review
- Influence of geographic conditions on body length of male newborns in Kyrgyzstan.International journal of biometeorology · 2021Article
- Effect of Maternal Nutritional Status and Mode of Delivery on Zinc and Iron Stores at Birth.Nutrients · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIron accrued in utero is critical for fetal and infant neurocognitive development. Psychosocial stress and obesity can each suppress fetal iron accrual. Their combined effects and differences by fetal sex are not known. In an observational pregnancy cohort study in Mexico City, we investigated associations of maternal prenatal life stressors, psychological dysfunction, and prepregnancy BMI with fetal iron status at delivery.
objectivesWe hypothesized that greater maternal prenatal psychosocial stress and prepregnancy overweight and obesity are associated with lower cord blood ferritin and hemoglobin (Hb), with stronger associations in boys than girls.
methodsPsychosocial stress in multiple domains of life stress (negative life events, perceived stress, exposure to violence) and psychological dysfunction symptoms (depression, generalized anxiety, and pregnancy-specific anxiety) were assessed with validated questionnaires during pregnancy. Prepregnancy BMI was predicted with a validated equation and categorized as normal/overweight/obese. Cord blood ferritin and Hb associations with prenatal psychosocial stress and BMI were modeled in multivariable linear regressions adjusted for maternal age, socioeconomic status, child sex, and prenatal iron supplementation. Interactions with child sex and 3-way stress-overweight/obesity-sex interactions were tested with product terms and likelihood ratio tests.
resultsIn 493 dyads, median (IQR) cord blood ferritin and Hb concentrations were 185 µg/L (126-263 g/dL) and 16 g/dL (14.7-17.1 g/dL), respectively. Ferritin was lower in infants of mothers with higher prenatal perceived stress (-23%; 95% CI: -35%, -9%), violence exposure (-28%; 95% CI: -42%, -12%), anxiety symptoms (-16%; 95% CI: -27%, -4%), and obesity (-17%; 95% CI: -31%, 0.2%). Interaction models suggested sex differences and synergism between maternal stress and overweight/obesity. No associations were observed between stress or BMI and Hb.
conclusionsMultiple prenatal psychosocial stressors and excess prepregnancy BMI were each inversely associated with fetal iron status at birth. Pregnancies and infants at elevated risk of impaired fetal iron accrual may be identifiable according to observed synergism between maternal stress and obesity and differential associations with fetal iron status by infant sex.
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