Birth weight and related outcomes have profound influences on life cycle health, but the effect of maternal hemoglobin concentration during pregnancy on birth weight is still unclear. This study aims to reveal the associations between maternal hemoglobin concentrations in different trimesters of pregnancy and neonatal birth weight, LBW, and SGA. This was a prospective study based on a cluster-randomized controlled trial conducted from July 2015 to December 2019 in rural areas of Northwest China. Information on maternal socio-demographic status, health-related factors, antenatal visits, and neonatal birth outcomes were collected. A total of 3748 women and their babies were included in the final analysis. A total of 65.1% and 46.3% of the participants had anemia or hemoglobin ≥ 130 g/L during pregnancy. In the third trimester, maternal hemoglobin concentration was associated with birth weight in an inverted U-shaped curve and with the risks of LBW and SGA in extended U-shaped curves. The relatively higher birth weight and lower risks for LBW and SGA were observed when hemoglobin concentration was 100–110 g/L. When maternal hemoglobin was 130 g/L, the neonatal birth weight was more than 100 g lower than that when the maternal hemoglobin was 100 g/L. In conclusion, both low and high hemoglobin concentrations in the third trimester could be adverse to fetal weight growth and increase the risks of LBW and SGA, respectively. In addition to severe anemia, maternal hemoglobin >130 g/L in the third trimester should be paid great attention to in the practice of maternal and child health care.

Diet plays a crucial role in regulating individuals’ lifestyles and is closely related to health. The intake of animal-sourced foods (ASF) provides the human body with high-quality protein and various micronutrients. This study aimed to investigate whether the diversity of animal foods has a positive impact on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among residents. The data came from the Shaanxi baseline survey of the Northwest Chinese Regional Ethnic Cohort Study, which recruited more than 100 thousand participants aged 35 to 74 from five provinces between June 2018 and May 2019. A total of 39,997 participants in Shaanxi (mean age: 50 years; 64% women) were finally included in this current study. The animal source food diet diversity score (ASFDDS) was established based on the frequency of consuming pork, mutton, beef, poultry, seafood, eggs, pure milk, and yogurt. The physical component score (PCS) and mental component score (MCS), ranging from 0 to 100 on the 12-Item Short Form Survey (SF-12), were used to assess participants’ HRQoL. Better PCS/MCS was defined as scores higher than the 90th percentile. The results showed that men had a higher intake of ASF and ASFDDS than women. After adjusting for potential confounders, compared with those who never or rarely consumed animal foods, the likelihood of having better PCS and MCS increased by 16% (OR = 1.16, 95%CI: 1.01–1.34) and 24% (OR = 1.24, 95%CI: 1.03–1.448), respectively, in men with an ASFDDS ≥ 2. In women, a 34% increase (OR = l.34, 95%CI: 116–l.54) likelihood for better PCS was observed for an ASFDDS ≥ 2, but no association was observed for MCS. Increasing each specific animal source’s food intake was associated with better PCS after adjusting for all covariates. However, for MCS, positive associations were only observed in seafood consumption among men and eggs among women. Restricted cubic splines showed a substantial dose-response association between intake frequency of animal-source foods and PCS, both in men and women. The study suggests that a diverse intake of animal-sourced foods can potentially improve the HRQoL of Chinese adults.

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most prevalent birth defect in recent decades. The aim of this research was to examine the association between maternal housing renovation exposure during the periconceptional period and isolated congenital heart disease (CHD) in their offspring.Methods: A multi-hospitals case-control study was conducted from six tertiary A hospitals in Xi’an, Shaanxi, Northwest China based on questionnaires and interviews to address this question. The cases included fetuses or newborns diagnosed with CHD. Controls consisted of healthy newborns without birth defects. In total, 587 cases and 1180 controls were enrolled in this study. The association between maternal periconceptional housing renovation exposure and isolated CHD for offspring was assessed by estimating odds ratios (OR) with multivariate logistic regression models.Results: After adjusting for potential confounding variables, it was found that maternal exposure to home improvement projects was associated with a higher probability of isolated CHD in offspring (adjusted OR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.34, 2.33). Additionally, the risk of the ventricular septal defect (VSD) and patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) for CHD types was significantly associated with maternal exposure to housing renovations (VSD: adjusted OR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.01, 2.41; PDA: adjusted OR = 2.50, 95% CI: 1.41, 4.45).Conclusions: Our study suggests that maternal exposure to housing renovation during the periconceptional period was associated with an increased risk of isolated CHD in offspring. Consequently, it would be beneficial to avoid living in a renovated home from 12 months before pregnancy through the first trimester to lower isolated CHD in infants.

This study aimed to derive a maternal dietary pattern to explain the variation in B vitamins during pregnancy and to investigate this pattern in relation to birth outcomes. A total of 7347 women who gave birth to live newborns less than one year were included. Their dietary pattern during pregnancy was derived using the reduced-rank regression method with six B vitamins as response variables. Associations between dietary pattern score and birth weight, gestational age at delivery, birth weight Z score, low birth weight, preterm, and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) were estimated using generalised linear mixed models. We identified a high B-vitamin dietary pattern characterised by high intakes of animal foods, vegetables, fungi and algae, legumes, and low intakes of oils and cereals. Women in the highest quartile of this pattern score had newborns with a 44.5 g (95% CI: 13.8, 75.2 g) higher birth weight, 0.101 (95% CI: 0.029, 0.172) higher birth weight Z score, and 27.2% (OR: 0.728; 95% CI: 0.582, 0.910) lower risk of SGA than those in the lowest quartile. Our study suggested that adherence to the high B-vitamin dietary pattern during pregnancy was associated with a higher birth weight and a lower risk of SGA.

Myopia has emerged as a major global public health concern, especially among children and adolescents in China. This study assessed the prevalence and inci

Objective: This study aimed to examine the associations between physical activity (PA) levels and depressive symptoms in patients with radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (r-axSpA). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of patients with r-axSpA identified from the UK Biobank. Total PA (TPA) was assessed using a modified version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF), and leisure-time PA (LTPA) was derived from self-reported frequency and duration of 5 leisure activities during the preceding 4 weeks. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 2-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2). Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between PA levels and depressive symptoms. Results: Among 1542 patients with r-axSpA, those engaging in moderate-level PA had the lowest prevalence of depressive symptoms. After full adjustment, moderate-level TPA was associated with lower odds of depressive symptoms compared with low-level TPA (odds ratio [OR] 0.55, 95% CI 0.36-0.82), whereas the association with high-level TPA was not statistically significant (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.39-1.01). Moderate-level LTPA was also associated with lower odds of depressive symptoms (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.34-0.996), whereas low- and high-level LTPA showed no significant associations after full adjustment. Conclusion: Moderate-level PA was associated with a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms in patients with r-axSpA, whereas associations for high-level PA were less consistent. Our findings suggest that PA levels may be an important correlate of depressive symptoms in patients with r-axSpA, warranting confirmation in longitudinal studies.