Prevalence and persistence of nausea and vomiting along the pregnancy.

Background/aims: Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) impact in the pregnant woman´s quality of life, especially when are persistent or severe. The objective is to estimate the prevalence and factors associated with the persistence of NVP in each trimester of pregnancy.

Methods: We studied a cohort of 263 pregnant women with gestational age < 12 weeks. Data were collected using the Gastro- Esophageal Reflux Questionnaire validated for use in the Spanish population. Data were collected through telephone interviews at the end of each trimester of pregnancy. The main variable was the presence of NVP in each trimester and their persistence along the pregnancy.

Results: The prevalence of nausea in the each trimester was 63.5 %, 33.8 %, 26.2 %, and vomiting was 29.3 %, 22.1 %, 14.1 %, respectively. Factors associated with nausea in the first trimester were Latin-American origin (OR: 3.60, 95 %IC 1.61- 80.5) and primary education (OR: 0.31; 0.13-0.73); vomiting was associated with Latin-American origin (OR: 13.80, 1.82-104.4) and was inversely associated with weight gain (OR: 0.58, 0.35-0.97). Persistence of NVP were only associated with suffering the symptom in the previous trimester (p < 0.01), and did not find other predictor factors.

Conclusions: NVP´s prevalence declines along pregnancy, is associated with race and inversely with weight gain, and its persistence over time cannot be predicted.