engleski

ISLAND LIFE — DREAMS AND REALITIES: LINKING MATERNAL HEALTH AND LIFESTYLE IN DALMATIA, CROATIA WITH CHILD’S EARLY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Background and Aim. The importance of environmental influences on ‘early life programming’ is well known and investigated thoroughly in the past decade. Among other, maternal health and lifestyle before and during pregnancy influences fetal programming and can have long-term effects on child’s health later on. The aim was to investigate the association of maternal health and lifestyle in Dalmatia, Croatia with child’s early growth and development and detect potential mainland-island differences. Material and methods: CRoatian Islands’ Birth Cohort Study (CRIBS) encompasses 500 mother-child dyads from the city of Split and islands Brač and Hvar. Maternal demographic, socioeconomic, medical, anthropometric and lifestyle data, as well as data on child health and development were retrieved from the hospital medical records or collected through self-completed questionnaires. Results: Significant differences between women from the mainland and from the islands have been observed. Namely, women from the islands have lower education and household budget and a higher unemployment rate, but higher activity levels. Additionally, women from the islands have higher parity, low contraception practice and smoke more often than women from the mainland. Adherence to Mediterranean diet is generally low to moderate among pregnant women in this study, with no significant mainland–island differences. Also, women with higher weight before and during pregnancy gave birth to larger babies and mothers with allergies more often gave birth to children that developed allergies in the first year of life. Exclusive breastfeeding is dominant in the first month and highly prevalent in the first six months of a child’s life in our cohort, with a more pronounced percentage in the island populations. Conclusion: Results from the CRIBS study underline significant mainland-island differences in certain maternal characteristics. Despite that, CRIBS children are generally in good health and minimal mainland-island differences have been observed in their early growth and development.

islands ; maternal health ; lifestyle ; child growth

nije evidentirano