ArticleNutrition & metabolism2022
Dietary protein intake during pregnancy and birth weight among Chinese pregnant women with low intake of protein.
Article in Nutrition & metabolism, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diet diversity score might be associated with reproductive health in women and infant outcomes: a systematic review.Journal of nutritional science · 2025Pooled it
- Maternal macronutrient and energy intake during pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Association Between Maternal Protein Intake and the Risk of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Validation of a food frequency questionnaire for pregnant Swedish women in the NorthPop Birth Cohort Study against repeated 24-hour recalls.Nutrition journal · 2026Article
- Dietary choline intake during pregnancy and birth weight in a Chinese population: a cross-sectional study.Nutrition journal · 2026Observational
- The (ab)use of food frequency questionnaire data in substitution modelling in nutritional epidemiology: a critique.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Review
- Association between dietary protein intake and preterm birth in pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus: the WeBirth cohort study.Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Article
- Beyond the bare minimum: the case for revised physical activity guidelines and protein intake recommendations that maximise healthspan.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Newborn Nutritional Status at Birth and Its Association With Maternal Dietary Practices During Pregnancy in Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A Path Analysis.Food science & nutrition · 2025Article
- Maternal iron nutrition during pregnancy and fetal intrauterine growth.Nutrition journal · 2024Article
- Maternal Dietary Protein Patterns and Neonatal Anthropometrics: A Prospective Study with Insights from NMR Metabolomics in Amniotic Fluid.Metabolites · 2023Article
- Maternal Dietary Diversity and Birth Weight in Offspring: Evidence from a Chinese Population-Based Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrevious studies have yielded inconsistent results on the association between maternal dietary protein intake and birth weight. Moreover, little is known about the effects of dietary protein intake from different sources on fetal growth. This study aimed to investigate the associations of different dietary protein sources (total protein, animal protein, plant protein, and major dietary protein sources) during pregnancy with birth weight and the related adverse birth outcomes.
methods7310 women were recruited using a stratified multistage random sampling method at 0-12 months (median: 3; 10-90th percentile: 0-7) after delivery in Shaanxi, China. Maternal diets were gathered by a validated FFQ and other characteristics were collected by a standard questionnaire. Multilevel linear or logistic regression models were used to estimate birth weight changes or ORs (95% CIs) for adverse birth outcomes associated with different dietary protein sources during pregnancy.
resultsThe mean percentage of energy from total protein was 11.4% (SD 2.2), with only 27.4% of total protein derived from animal protein. Per 3% increase in energy from total protein, animal protein, and dairy protein was associated with birth weight increases of 19.4 g (95% CI 6.0-32.9), 20.6 g (4.8-36.5), and 18.2 g (4.7-31.7), respectively. Per 3% increase in energy from total protein, animal protein, and dairy protein was also associated with lower risks of low birth weight (LBW) (total protein: OR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.64-0.94; animal protein: 0.79, 0.65-0.96; dairy protein: 0.71, 0.56-0.91), small for gestational age (SGA) (total protein: 0.88, 0.79-0.98; animal protein: 0.87, 0.78-0.97; dairy protein: 0.81, 0.68-0.96), and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) (total protein: 0.84, 0.72-0.98; animal protein: 0.86, 0.75-0.98; dairy protein: 0.78, 0.66-0.92). We observed no associations of plant protein and other major dietary protein sources with birth weight and the above birth outcomes. The results did not change when maternal protein was substituted for fat or carbohydrate.
conclusionsAmong Chinese pregnant women with low intake of protein, higher intake of dietary protein, in particular animal protein and dairy protein, is associated with higher birth weight and lower risks of LBW, SGA, and IUGR.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.