Household food insecurity during pregnancy as a predictor of anthropometric indices failures in infants aged less than 6 months: a retrospective longitudinal study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of household food insecurity during the third trimester of pregnancy on the growth indicators of infants aged less than 6 months. DESIGN: Retrospective longitudinal study. SETTING: 137 healthcare centres (15 cities) in Khorasan Razavi province, Iran. Data were extracted from the Sina Electronic Health Record System (SinaEHR®). PARTICIPANTS: This study was conducted on 2481 mother and infant dyads during November 2016–March 2019. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (nine-item version) was used to measure food insecurity in the third trimester of pregnancy. Women who delivered singleton infants were included in the study, and anthropometric indices of infants were measured throughout the first 6 months of life. RESULTS: Approximately 67 % of the participants were food secure, while 33 % had varying degrees of food insecurity. The children born to the mothers in the food-insecure households were, respectively, 2·01, 3·03, and 3·83 times more likely to be stunted at birth (95 % CI 1·17, 3·46), 4 months (95 % CI 1·21, 7·61) and 6 months of age (95 % CI 1·37, 10·68) compared to their counterparts in the food-secure households. However, there were no significant differences in mean birth weight, birth height and head circumference at birth between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Household food insecurity during pregnancy is a risk factor for stunting in infants aged less than 6 months. Therefore, national nutrition programs could considerably support women in food-insecure households during and before pregnancy.