Seasonality of antenatal care attendance, maternal dietary intake, and fetal growth in the VHEMBE birth cohort, South Africa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Seasonality of food availability, physical activity, and infections commonly occurs within rural communities in low and middle-income countries with distinct rainy seasons. To better understand the implications of these regularly occurring environmental stressors for maternal and child health, this study examined seasonal variation in nutrition and health care access of pregnant women and infants in rural South Africa.

Methods

We analyzed data from the Venda Health Examination of Mothers, Babies and their Environment (VHEMBE) birth cohort study of 752 mother-infant pairs recruited at delivery from August 2012 to December 2013 in the Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, the northernmost region of South Africa. We used truncated Fourier series regression to assess s

SUBMITTER: Fahey CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6760765 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature