engleski

Insight from Croatian Island Cohort

In 2015, the first birth cohort study in Croatia, named “Croatian Islands Birth Cohort Study (CRIBS)” was initiated. Our aim was to prospectively follow a sample of 500 pregnant women and their children in two sub-populations – island population (Croatian Dalmatian islands - Hvar and Brač) and mainland population (City of Split with its surroundings). Data on social factors (age, marital status, education, employment, income, religious views, number of children), psychosocial factors (quality of life, health beliefs and attitudes, postnatal depression), lifestyle (smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary habits, physical activity), as well as medical data (maternal obstetric data and medical history, potential pre-, peri- and post-natal complications, information on child’s growth and development, feeding habits, allergies, vaccination, other medical issues etc.) and biological samples (blood samples from the mother and cord blood samples from the newborns) were collected. So far, the results are showing the influence of environmental and biological variables (e.g., maternal age, smoking, parity, lipid profile and fasting blood glucose level) as risk factors for the devepoment of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and adverse pregnancy outcomes in this Croatian birth cohort. Pre-pregnancy BMI has been observed as an indicator of maternal health disorders during pregnancy (deviated biochemical parameters, high blood pressure), as well as an indicator of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The main advantage of the CRIBS birth cohort is the quality of the collected data (including biological samples of mother-child dyads), thus enabling future research of biological and environmental risk factors for the development of MetS and associated complex disorders.

Metabolic syndrome ; Obesity ; island populations ; human growth

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