Doctor to investigate links between pregnant women's diet and baby bone growth
A SOUTHAMPTON doctor plans to investigate the links between the diet and lifestyle of 500 pregnant women and the way in which the bones of their new-born babies develop.
Dr Muhammad Javaid, a locum specialist registrar in Southampton General Hospital's department of medicine, has been awarded a Clinical Research Fellowship of £107,500 by the Arthritis Research Campaign to carry out the three-year project.
Previous research has already shown that environmental influences in early life may have a long-term effect on the development of the skeleton in later years, and the subsequent risk of osteoporotic fracture.
Osteoporosis is a very common musculoskeletal condition which affects around three million people in the UK, and leads to bones becoming thinner and more brittle, often resulting in broken limbs.
"Prevention of osteoporosis is important, as there is no cure," explained Dr Javaid, who will be working at the MRC Enviromental Epidemiology Unit. "One way of preventing it may be to make people's bones stronger. Weight in infancy is a determinant of bone mass in late adulthood, but little data is available on the relationship between the lifestyle of the baby's mother, and how the baby's bones grow in the womb.
"We plan to study 500 pregnant women in the Southampton area who will be questioned in detail about their diet and lifestyle, and their unborn babies measured using ultrasound. And within one week of birth, we will then take the new-born babies' bone mineral and body composition measurements."
By finding out more about the relationship between the mother's diet and the babies' bones, Dr Javaid hopes that future mothers-to-be could be offered dietary advice to ensure that their babies have stronger bones, and are less likely to develop osteoporosis as they get older.
The ARC has also awarded a grant of £14,082 to Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist Eve Murphy, for a one-year project to investigate the effectiveness of surgical collars on patients who have undergone a common form of neck surgery.
Ms Murphy, who is based at the Wessex Neurological Centre at Southampton General Hospital, said there was little evidence to suggest that surgical collars helped patients recover from their surgery, and could promote neck stiffness and muscles weakness. Fifty patients will take part in Ms Murphy's clinical trial.
