Lipid changes throughout pregnancy according to pre-pregnancy BMI: results from a prospective cohort

Objective To evaluate the rate of change in serum lipids and the factors associated with their variations, stratifying for pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) categories. Design Prospective cohort. Setting Public Health centre, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Population Two hundred and twenty-five healthy pregnant women recruited between 2009 and 2011. Methods Women were evaluated during the three trimesters of pregnancy (5th–13th, 20th–26th and 30th–36th gestational weeks). Pre-pregnancy BMI (kg/m²) was classified as normal weight (NW = 18.5–24.9), overweight (OW = 25.0–29.9) or obese (OB ≥ 30.0). The independent variables included maternal socioeconomic, demographic, biochemical and lifestyle factors. We performed linear mixed-effects models adjusted for gestational age and body weight, reporting coefficient (β) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Main outcome measures Longitudinal total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL-c), low-density lipoprotein (LDL-c) and triglyceride (TG) measurements. Results OW and OB women presented higher mean TG, TC and LDL-c compared with their NW counterparts (P