CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 326Evolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorPrimate Behavior and EcologyInfant Nutrition and Health

Comparative and evolutionary dimensions of the energetics of human pregnancy and lactation.

Dufour, D.L., Sauther, M.L.·2002·American Journal of Human Biology
DOI 10.1002/ajhb.10071
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to compare the energetics of reproduction for human and other primates in order to evaluate the extent to which human reproductive energetics are distinct from other primates and other large‐bodied placental mammals. The article also evaluates the energetics of human and primate gestation and lactation using data from a variety of different populations living under different environmental circumstances. Energetics refers to energy intake and expenditure, and changes in body fat stores. Human and nonhuman primates have longer periods of gestation and lactation and slower prenatal and postnatal growth than other mammals of similar size. This reduces daily maternal energy costs. The development of sizable fat stores is not unique to humans, but fat stores are typically greater in human females and may play a greater role in reproduction. The strategies used to meet the energy costs of pregnancy vary among populations of humans and nonhuman primates and among humans interindividual variability is high. In pregnancy, some increase energy intake but others apparently do not. Increases in metabolic efficiency are evident in some human populations, whereas decreases in physical activity occur, but are not seen in all human or primate populations. Lactation is more energetically costly on a daily basis among humans and nonhuman primates, but has not been as well studied. It appears that both nonhuman and human primates tend to increase energy intake to meet in part the cost of lactation. They also use other strategies such as relying on body tissue stores, reductions in physical activity, and/or increases in metabolic efficiency to meet the remainder of the cost. It is also clear that human females in different populations and different women in the same population use a different combination of strategies to meet the cost of lactation. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 14:584–602, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/ajhb.10071

Cites

100 of 100 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Studies of pregnant and lactating women in traditional cultures have shown that changes in behavior and physiology enable them to maintain TEE at levels similar to those of their Western counterparts.

    “And studies of pregnant and lactating women in traditional cultures have shown that changes in both behavior (e.g., work load) and physiology (e.g., BMR) enable them to maintain TEE at levels similar to those of their Western counterparts [44], [45].”

    From Hunter-gatherer energetics and human obesity (2012) · cites this paper as [45]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Dufour, D. L., & Sauther, M. L.
Affiliations
University of Colorado Boulder (US)
Corresponding author
Dufour, D.L.
ORCID
Venue
American Journal of Human Biology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2002-08-21
Volume
14
Issue
5
Pages
584-602
ISSN
  • 1042-0533 (ISSN-L)
  • 1520-6300
DOI
10.1002/ajhb.10071
OpenAlex
W1963625042
Cited by
326
References
100
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 18
FWCI
5.73
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • American Journal of Human Biology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Infant Nutrition and Health
Keywords
reproductive energetics, human pregnancy, lactation, non-human primates, maternal energy expenditure, maternal energy intake, body fat stores, gestation length, metabolic efficiency, physical activity, interindividual variability, placental mammals
MeSH terms
Adipose Tissue, Animals, Body Constitution, Energy Metabolism, Biological Evolution, Female, Humans, Lactation, Mammals, Models, Biological, Pregnancy, Hominidae

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review