Women who are underweight and overweight may be at a drastically increased risk of recurrent miscarriages. The findings appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.
Researchers at the University of Southampton conducted a meta-analysis and systematic review to assess lifestyle factors among such susceptible women.
From the study: “In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we showed that the odds of having RPL in the general population is increased in the underweight and BMI >25 subgroups by 1.2-fold compared to those with normal BMI.”
“The risk of having further miscarriage in the RPL population is higher for raised BMI and this effect is further exaggerated when performing subgroup analyses on women with a BMI of >30; there is a 1.3-fold and 1.7-fold increase in risk of further miscarriage in the BMI >25 and BMI >30 subgroups respectively,” the study also states.
“Larger studies addressing the effects of alcohol, cigarette smoking and caffeine on the risk of RPL with optimisation of BMI in this cohort of women are now needed.”
The study was authored by Ka Ying Bonnie Ng, George Cherian, Alexandra J. Kermack, Sarah Bailey, Nick Macklon, Sesh K. Sunkara, and Ying Cheong.
