ABSTRACT
Purpose: To study pregnancy craving and pica in a cohort of women and compare our
findings to a historic study. Methods: Prospective survey of women in
the third trimester of pregnancy. Data were collected using the same
questionnaire from a study published in Obstetrics
and Gynecology in 1957. All surveys were conducted by clinicians at 35 0/7-41
6/7 weeks gestational age. High risk pregnancies were excluded. Results: We
included 547 women in the analysis. Of those, 60.8% reported food craving vs
65.7% in the 1957 cohort, p-value
0.09. The most common food craving was fruit, seen in 31.1% vs 13.6%, p-value < 0.00001. In the group of
women with craving, 64.6% reported that they craved the food item prior to
becoming pregnant, 76.0% could not wait until another day to satisfy their food
craving, and 41.7% reported there was something they liked as much. Only 2.9%
of women in our cohort had pica vs 9.0%, p-value
0.00001. The cohorts differed in fruit craving, (31.1% vs 13.6%), meat,
poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts (21.0% vs 5.0%), milk, yogurt, and
cheese, (17.0% vs 2.2%) and vegetable, (14.1% vs 6.9%), all with p-value < 0.00001. They did not
differ in the category of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta, 17.9% vs 22.3, p-value 0.06. Conclusion: Food
craving during the third trimester of pregnancy has remained constant for
almost 60 years, although the items craved have changed. Pica was less common
in our modern cohort of women.