SHAPES Cohort Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Study of How Adiposity in Pregnancy has an Effect on outcomeS (SHAPES): a cohort study
IRAS ID
302444
Contact name
Nicola Heslehurst
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
Having an obese body mass index (BMI greater than 30) in early pregnancy is associated with pregnancy complications including diabetes and preterm birth. Current guidelines recommend extra “high-risk” care is provided to try and manage obesity complications, including additional referrals, tests and monitoring. However, BMI isn’t a very good measure to be able to accurately determine which women will develop complications during pregnancy. About half of women with obesity (87,000 women each year in England) don’t develop any complications and don’t need the high-risk care they receive, whereas about 40% of women without obesity (103,000 women) do develop these complications and do require high risk care, but don’t receive it as their BMI is not high enough.
Fat stored in the upper-body is associated with an increased risk of poor health. Someone with a “healthy” BMI who stores fat above their waist can have a higher risk than someone with a high BMI who stores fat below their waist. There are some adiposity measures (e.g. waist size, ultrasound examination) which can identify where body fat is stored and these may be better than BMI at identifying which pregnant women need high risk care.
This research will explore how accurate different adiposity measures are at predicting which women develop pregnancy complications to help target high-risk care to women who need it.
We will invite pregnant women to have adiposity measurements taken in early pregnancy and link this data with the pregnancy outcomes recorded routinely in women’s maternity records. Statistical analysis will compare the different adiposity measures with BMI to explore which measures are best at predicting pregnancy complications.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/NE/0035
Date of REC Opinion
17 Feb 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion