The Association Between Major Dietary Patterns and Pregnancy-related Complications

BACKGROUND

Most pregnancy-related complications are associated with increased risks of adverse outcomes for mother and her infant. Although, relations between diet and pregnancy's complications indicate that there may be some benefits of nutritional factors to prevent such disorders, there are rare studies regarding the associations of dietary patterns and mentioned complications. So, the aim of the present study was to determine the relationship between dietary patterns and risk of pregnancy-related complications.

METHODS

The current prospective observational study was based on the data collected from 812 pregnant women. Dietary data was collected using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire.

RESULTS

Three major dietary patterns identified according to the results from the factor loading matrix were: (i) 'western dietary pattern'; (ii) 'traditional dietary pattern'; (iii) 'healthy dietary pattern'. Overall, this study demonstrated a marginal significant inverse association between high adherence to healthy dietary pattern and chance of having pre-eclampsia. Also, a high chance of pre-eclampsia was observed among women with the most adherence to western dietary pattern.

CONCLUSION

We found that dietary patterns might be associated with the risk of pregnancy-related complications. Further studies are required to confirm these findings.

Maternal traditional dietary pattern and antiretroviral treatment exposure are associated with neonatal size and adiposity in urban, black South Africans

This study examines the associations between maternal Traditional dietary pattern adherence and HIV/treatment with neonatal size and adiposity in urban, black South Africans, as well as how specific maternal factors - that is BMI and gestational weight gain (GWG) - may influence these associations. Multiple linear regression models were used to examine associations among maternal Traditional diet pattern adherence (pattern score), HIV/treatment status (three groups: HIV negative, HIV positive (antenatal antiretroviral treatment (ART) initiation), HIV positive (pre-pregnancy ART initiation)), BMI and GWG (kg/week), and newborn (1) weight:length ratio (WLR, kg/m) in 393 mother-neonate pairs, and (2) Peapod estimated fat mass index (FMI, kg/m3) in a 171-pair subsample. In fully adjusted models, maternal obesity and GWG were associated with 0·25 kg/m (P=0·008) and 0·48 kg/m (P=0·002) higher newborn WLR, whereas Traditional diet pattern score was associated with lower newborn WLR (-0·04 kg/m per +1 sd; P=0·033). In addition, Traditional diet pattern score was associated with 0·13 kg/m3 (P=0·027) and 0·32 kg/m3 (P=0·005) lower FMI in the total sample and in newborns of normal-weight women, respectively. HIV-positive (pre-pregnancy ART) v. HIV-negative (ref) status was associated with 1·11 kg/m3 (P=0·002) higher newborn FMI. Promotion of a Traditional dietary pattern, alongside a healthy maternal pre-conception weight, in South African women may reduce newborn adiposity and metabolic risk profiles. In HIV-positive women, targeted monitoring and management strategies are necessary to limit treatment-associated effects on in utero fat deposition.