Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health
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Life course approach to preconception health

Approved: 2017

Collaborators:

  • Prof Gita Mishra
  • Mr Richard Hockey
  • Dr Danielle Schoenaker
  • Mr Tesfaye Setegn Mengistu

Synopsis

Improving lifestyle and health before pregnancy may provide an opportunity to help prevent complications during pregnancy. Previous projects in the ALSWH have shown that an unhealthy diet and weight gain in the years leading up to pregnancy were associated with a higher risk of developing gestational diabetes and hypertension. By taking a life course approach to prepregnancy lifestyle and health, this project aims to describe the prevalence of prepregnancy lifestyle and health-related factors, and to examine whether these factors - and their timing and duration - are associated with adverse outcome in future pregnancies. These findings in Australian women form part of a larger project, and will be compared with prepregnancy lifestyle and health-related factors in study populations from the UK.