Obesity and Lifestyle Indicators Impact on Obstetric Complications and Fetal Outcome in North Lebanon Population

Worldwide, obesity has been shown to negatively affect women especially during pregnancy. In this work, a retrospective cohort study for 1308 women, who gave birth between 2014 and 2016 in public and private hospitals, was conducted to evaluate the impact of weight, demographic and lifestyle indicators on many pregnancy and fetal outcomes in Northern Lebanon. The frequent health complications related to pregnancy were cesarean-section (31.1%) followed by post-hemorrhage (25.1%), induced labor (23.5%) and macrosomia (11.4%). Multivariate analysis showed that the main complications were highly correlated to obesity, macrosomia, weight gain, multiparity and mother’s age. High values from adjusted odds ratios were mainly associated to obesity, multiparity and weight gain. Obese pregnant women had a significant increased risk of having cesarean-section (p<0.001), preeclampsia (p<0.0001), labor induction (p<0.0001) and postpartum hemorrhage (p<0.0001). Adverse fetal outcomes such as macrosomia were also correlated with high BMI (p<0.0001). The risk was even greater for multiparous, older women that carried excessive weight gain. There is therefore a need to increase awareness among the target population and encourage prevention of the dangers related to obesity and weight gain.