ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Chrononutrition behaviors during pregnancy: maternal nighttime eating increases the risk of preterm birth
Provisionally accepted
Ameyalli M Rodríguez-Cano
Berenice Medel-Canchola
Isabel González-Ludlow
María Luisa Pizano Zárate
Guadalupe Estrada-Gutierrez
Otilia Perichart-Perera*- Instituto Nacional de Perinatología (INPER), Mexico City, Mexico
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Maternal nutrition in pregnancy influences birth outcomes and offspring health; chrononutrition behaviors could be potentially linked to perinatal complications such as preterm birth (PTB). Aim: To evaluate if gestational chrononutrition behaviors influence PTB risk. Methods: Healthy pregnant women (n=215) from the ongoing OBESO cohort (Mexico City) were studied. Diet (24hr-recall) and sleep-schedule were evaluated in each trimester, obtaining average fasting duration (hours, last–first meal), minutes from waking-up to breakfast (AM-latency), and from dinner to sleeping (PM-latency). Nighttime eating (9:00pm-5:59am on three recalls) was registered. Short sleep was defined as <6h/night. The presence of gestational complications (preeclampsia–PE–, gestational diabetes– GDM–, gestational hypertension–GH–), gestational weight gain (GWG), multivitamin (MV) consumption (low:0-1trimesters, moderate:2trimesters, high:3trimesters) was recorded. Gestational age at resolution was computed and PTB was classified (<37weeks, first-trimester ultrasound). Logistic regression models were performed to evaluate the association between each chrononutrition behavior and the presence of PTB. Results: Mean fasting was 11.8±1.2hr; AM, PM latency were 104.4±76.7, 112.3±54.5min, respectively. Nighttime eating was present in 33%(n=71) of women. Gestational complications prevalence was 16.3%(n=35). Half of women had a high MV-consumption (55.8%,n=120). PTB was present in 8.8%(n=19) of pregnancies. A higher frequency of PTB was observed with nighttime eating (15.5% vs 5.6%;p=0.16), with low MV-consumption (low:25%, moderate:5.6%, high:7.5%;p=0.011) and with short sleep (63.2% vs 29.1%; p=0.002). Regression models showed that nighttime eating (OR:5.716, 95%CI:1.724-18.951), low MV-consumption (OR:7.937, 95%CI:1.873-33.639), short sleep (OR:4.551, 95%CI:1.392-14.879) and PE (OR:9.016, 95%CI:1.772-45.881) were positively associated with PTB risk. Other maternal variables in the
Keywords: Circadian Rhythm, Prenatal supplementation, maternal diet, Neonatal health, Perinatal outcomes
Received: 05 Sep 2025; Accepted: 29 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rodríguez-Cano, Medel-Canchola, González-Ludlow, Pizano Zárate, Estrada-Gutierrez and Perichart-Perera. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Otilia Perichart-Perera, otiliaperichart@inper.gob.mx
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