A descriptive study of pregnant women with gallstones. Relation to dietary and social habits, education, physical activity, height, and weight.

Five hundred and twelve women attending the antenatal clinic of the Rotunda Hospital of Dublin were studied by means of abdominal real time ultrasound (US) scanning to establish some of the characteristics of those subjects found to be gallstone-positive, compared to the gallstone-negative control population. Coffee, tea and sucrose consumption, dietary fats, attendance at fast-food restaurants, education, cigarette smoking, alcohol, and physical activity did not show any substantial differences between the two groups, while there was a significantly higher prevalence of cholelithiasis in women who had been dieting and in overweight subjects.