Gestational influences on outcome in twins. [ 2000 - 2002 ]

Research Grant

Researchers: Dr Ruth Morley (Principal investigator)

Brief description Adults who were small at birth have a higher risk of coronary heart disease and adult onset diabetes. From a public health point of view the most important issue is to identify which factors in pregnancy cause low birthweight and lead to increased risk of adult disease. Growth of a fetus depends on the supply of oxygen and nutrients and the availability of nutrients will depend on both the mother's dietary intake and the transfer of nutrients, via the placenta, to the baby It is important that we understand the role of maternal nutrition in fetal growth because it is potentially modifiable. Although we know that birthweight falls in times of famine little is known about whether the composition of a mother's diet in a developed society affects birthweight and later health of the offspring. We plan to study this in twin pregnancies, since maternal nutrition is more stretched and any effects should be magnified and more readily identified. It may be that maternal nutrition only matters if the placenta is not working as well as it should. Unfortunately there is no good measure of how well the placenta is working, but we will measure erythropoietin level in infants as a marker of whether they were getting enough oxygen via the placenta, and see whether there is any evidence that maternal nutrition matters more as the infant shows more signs of poor oxygen supply. In twins we can look between pairs for evidence that maternal nutritional factors affect birthweight, at twins within pairs to see whether oxygen supply or other individual factors are important and we can compare all infants as individuals to see how these different factors interact. We plan to study 200 women with twin pregnancies in Melbourne and Adelaide. Once we have identified factors influencing birthweight, we will be in a position to plan future studies to determine which are associated with increased risk markers for cardiovascular disease

Funding Amount $AUD 269,809.67

Funding Scheme NHMRC Project Grants

Notes Standard Project Grant