Health of mother and child in relation to consumption of organic food during pregnancy and infancy. The Norwegian Mother and child Study

Perceived positive health effects of organic food is a major motivation among consumers for buying organic food. Yet, relatively little is known about associations between organic food in the diet and health effects. This project uses data from The Norweg ian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), led by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in which 100 000 women and their children will be followed from week 17 in the pregnancy and many years onwards. To date 65 000 women are enrolled, and a quality co ntrolled data-file with 40 000 participants is available for analyses. Data consists of seven questionnaires on topics such as nutrition, lifestyle, socioeconomic and psychosocial factors. In the 14 page questionnaire on diet, questions about the intake o f organic food are included. The data from the MoBa study are automatically linked to the information registered in The Medical Birth Register (birth weight, gestation period etc.). The descriptive part of the study will show frequencies of organic food consumption for the different food types, and use factor analysis to describe food and lifestyle patters connected to organic food intake. The analytic part of the study is a cohort design, using all the data from the MoBa files. In this part, we will es timate the associations between the exposure (organic food) and health outcomes (birth weight, preterm births etc.) adjusted for other confounders using regression models. Main contribution from the project will be 1) Better characterisation of the orga nic food consumers (socio-economic and other); 2) More knowledge about possible positive or negative health effects of diets based on organic food; and 3) More knowledge about relations between organic food and health. Results are likely to be of benefit for the further development of production, sales and use of organic foods. Dissemination from the project will include a dissertation, scientific and popular articles and public information.