Maternal Caffeine Consumption and Racial Disparities in Fetal Telomere Length

• Main Authors: Isabel Griffin, MPH, Boubakari Ibrahimou, PhD, Natasha Navejar, BS, Anjali Aggarwal, MD, Kristopher Myers, MPH, Daniel Mauck, MPH, Korede K. Yusuf, MBBS, PhD, Usman J. Wudil, MD, MPH, Muktar H. Aliyu, MD, DrPH, Hamisu M. Salihu, MD, PhD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. 2019-12-01
• Series: International Journal of Maternal and Child Health and AIDS
• Online Access: https://www.mchandaids.org/index.php/IJMA/article/view/290

Background and Objectives: The identification of risk factors for shorter telomere length, especially during fetal development, would be important towards caffeine consumption recommendations for pregnant women on a global scale. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between caffeine intake and fetal telomere length as well as racial/ethnic differences in telomere length regardless of maternal caffeine consumption status. Methods: Caffeine intake was measured using a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Three generalized linear models (GLM) were compared based on binary categorical variables of caffeine levels using data mean value of 117.3 mg as cut-off; the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations of 300 mg; and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommendations of 200 mg. The association between caffeine consumption and telomere length (telomere to single-copy [T/S] ratio) was then assessed. Results: Among 57 maternal-fetal dyads, 77.2% reported less than 200 mg of caffeine (ACOG) and 89.5% less than 300 mg (WHO). Both WHO and ACOG models found that caffeine intake was significantly and positively associated with longer telomere length (p<0.05); and sodium (p<0.05). Other” race (p<0.001) and “white” race (p<0.001) were also significantly and positively associated with longer telomere length in the same models. Increasing maternal age shortened telomere length significantly in all models (p<0.001). Conclusion and Global Health implications: Caffeine intake, maternal age, and race may be associated with alterations in fetal telomere length. This indicates that caffeine consumption during pregnancy may have long-term implications for fetal development. The racial/ethnic differences in telomere length found in this study warrant larger studies to further confirm these associations. Key words: • Telomere • Fetal telomere length • Caffeine • Pregnancy • Maternal-Fetal medicine • Racial/ethnic differences   Copyright © 2020 Griffin et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.