La. Williams et al., PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE RELATIVE WEIGHTS OF THE PLACENTA AND THE NEWBORN-INFANT, BMJ. British medical journal, 314(7098), 1997, pp. 1864-1868
Objectives: To determine the demographic, environmental, and medical f
actors that influence the relative weights of the newborn infant and t
he placenta and compare this ratio with other factors known to predisp
ose to adult ill health.Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: The
tertiary referral centre for perinatal care in Perth, Western Austral
ia. Subjects: 2507 pregnant women who delivered a single live infant a
t term. Main outcome measures: Placental weight, birth weight, and the
ratio of placental weight to birth weight. Results: By multiple regre
ssion analysis the placental weight to birthweight ratio was significa
ntly and positively associated with gestational age, female sex, Asian
parentage, increasing maternal body mass index, increased maternal we
ight at booking, lower socioeconomic status, maternal anaemia, and inc
reasing number of cigarettes smoked daily. There were no consistent re
lations between the placental weight to birthweight ratio and measures
of newborn size. Conclusions: The ratio of placental weight to birth
weight is not an accurate marker of fetal growth. In its role as a pre
dictor of adult disease the ratio may be acting as a surrogate for oth
er factors which are already known to influence health and may act bef
ore or after birth. Determining the role that relative growth rates of
the fetus and placenta have in predisposing to adult disease requires
prospective study to account for the many confounding variables which
complicate this hypothesis.