and 535 from Ulsan) pregnant women were recruited
after excluding the cases with twins (n = 25) or spontaneous
abortion (n = 22). Of these, we excluded those who
have not yet delivered babies (n = 399), whose pregnancy
lasted less than 37 or more than 42 weeks (n = 63),
or who had complications associated with pregnancy
(diabetes or hypertension) (n = 29). Among the 1072
subjects, 85 subjects who were without any dietary
intake data and 3 subjects who had energy consumption
of < 500 kcal/d or > 4000 kcal/d were excluded from the
study. Of the 984 subjects, 296 in whom the data related
to fetal biometric measurements (biparietal diameter, abdominal
circumference and femur length) was absent at
mid-pregnancy were excluded. In order to investigate
the later effect of maternal nutrients on fetal growth,
353 subjects whose diet intake data at mid-pregnancy
were assessed after the ultrasonography was performed
at mid-pregnancy were also excluded. Thus, a total of
337 women (51 from Seoul, 123 from Cheonan, and 163
from Ulsan) were included in this study. The general
characteristics did not differ significantly between included
and excluded subjects (data now shown). The
study protocols and consent forms were approved by
three institutional review boards: Ewha Woman’s University
School of Medicine, Dankook University Hospital,
and Ulsan University Hospital.