Prenatal Maternal Cortisol Levels and Infant Birth Weight in a Predominately Low-Income Hispanic Cohort

Alicia K. Peterson, Claudia M. Toledo-Corral, Thomas A. Chavez, Christine H. Naya, Mark Johnson, Sandrah P. Eckel, Deborah Lerner, Brendan H. Grubbs, Shohreh F. Farzan, Genevieve F. Dunton, Theresa M. Bastain and Carrie V. Breton
Additional contact information
Alicia K. Peterson: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Claudia M. Toledo-Corral: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Thomas A. Chavez: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Christine H. Naya: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Mark Johnson: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Sandrah P. Eckel: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Deborah Lerner: Eisner Health, Los Angeles, CA 90015, USA
Brendan H. Grubbs: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
Shohreh F. Farzan: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Genevieve F. Dunton: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Theresa M. Bastain: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Carrie V. Breton: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-13

Abstract: Infant birth weight influences numerous health outcomes throughout the life course including childhood obesity and metabolic morbidities. Maternal experience of stress, both before and during pregnancy, has been hypothesized to influence fetal growth and birth outcomes. However, these associations currently are not fully understood, due to conflicting results in the published literature. Salivary cortisol is often used as a biological biomarker to assess the diurnal pattern of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA-axis) functioning. Cortisol metrics include both the total cortisol concentration secreted during waking hours, reflected by the area under the curve (AUC), and cortisol dynamics, which include the diurnal cortisol slope (DCS) and the cortisol awakening response (CAR). This study examined the association of these cortisol metrics measured during the third trimester of pregnancy and infant birth weight among 240 mother-infant dyads participating in the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) pregnancy cohort study, which is predominately comprised of Hispanic low-income women. There were no significant associations with the maternal biological stress response and infant birth weight in this study. More research is needed in larger studies to better understand how the biological stress response influences birth weight in populations facing health disparities.

Keywords: cortisol; birth weight; pregnancy; stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6896/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6896/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:18:p:6896-:d:416858

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().