Socioeconomic determinants of maternal obesity in Mexico and France. Comparative analysis of two cohorts

Abstract

Objective To identify and analyze the socioeconomic indicators of maternal obesity in Mexico and France. Material and Methods Comparative study of two cohorts: EDEN (France) and NUTT-SEA (Mexico). The study population consisted of women who requested prenatal consultation at week 24 of pregnancy. Data were collected using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The variables of interest were socioeconomic aspects, nutrition, anthropometry and food security. The quantitative analysis was performed using Stata and the qualitative analysis with Atlas-ti. Results In the EDEN cohort, 68.6% were aged 25-34 years, 73% had paid employment and 53% completed high school. In addition, 6.6% reported having difficulty accessing food and the mean gestational BMI was 23.23 ± 4.6. In the NUTTSEA cohort, 55% were in the age range 18-24 years, 15% reported having paid employment, 42% had completed secondary education, 32.1% presented a degree of food insecurity, and the mean BMI was 27.8 ± 4.8. Conclusions The qualitative and quantitative results of both cohorts suggest that populations with greater socio-economic vulnerability are more prone to maternal obesity, which leads to determine guidelines on barriers and facilitators to strengthen programs to prevent it maternal obesity.