Objective: To describe the distribution of weight‐related risks (weight retention and overweight/obese status) during the first postpartum year and determine if risk distributions differ by race/ethnicity, time, age, or parity.
Design: Secondary analysis of a longitudinal data set from 1‐ to 3‐days to 12‐months postpartum.
Setting: Initial recruitment was from a community hospital.
Participants: Two hundred and forty‐seven (White, African American, or Hispanic) low‐income women.
Results: At 1‐ to 3‐days postpartum weight‐related risks were distributed as follows: 6.1% no risk, 17.0% significant postpartum weight retention, 12.1% overweight/obese, and 64.8% both weight‐related risks; at 12 months, the distribution was 32.4%, 8.9%, 16.6%, and 42.1%, respectively. Distributions differed by race/ethnicity at 6‐months (χ2=16.1, p=.013) and 12‐months postpartum (χ2=19.7, p=.003). Having both weight‐related risks (vs. not) at 12 months was 3.1 (odds ratio [OR]) times more likely (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6, 6.2) for African American and 2.4 (OR) times more likely (95% CI[1.3, 4.6]) for Hispanic than White women. Having two risks decreased significantly only between 1 to 3 days and 6 weeks (p=.000). Maternal parity, but not age, was associated with weight‐related risk distributions on four of five time points.
Conclusion: Despite changes in the weight‐related risk distributions from 1‐ to 3‐days to 6‐weeks postpartum, the proportion of African American and Hispanic women with weight‐related risk (especially having two weight‐related risks) remains high at 12‐months postpartum.