Empirically Derived Prepregnancy Dietary Patterns and the Risk of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Case-Control Study

Anahita  Mansoori; Masoume  Gharang; Masoud  Veissi; Reyhaneh  Fateh

doi:10.18502/jnfs.v11i1.20922

Anahita Mansoori Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Research Center, Clinical Sciences Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Masoume Gharang Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Research Center, Clinical Sciences Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Masoud Veissi Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Research Center, Clinical Sciences Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Reyhaneh Fateh Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Abadan University of Medical Sciences, Abadan, Iran.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/jnfs.v11i1.20922

Keywords: Pregnancy; Dietary patterns; Gestational diabetes; Food frequency questionnaire

Abstract

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), diabetes first recognizedduring pregnancy, is associated with complications for mothers and theiroffspring. This study aimed to identify empirically-derived dietary patterns inpregnant women and their associations with GDM. Methods: A total of 274pregnant women (138 women with GDM and 136 controls) participated in thiscase-control study. Anthropometric measurements were performed for all theparticipants. The participants dietary intake data was collected via a valid foodfrequency questionnaire. The major dietary patterns were obtained via principalcomponent analysis (PCA) based on participants’ actual food consumption data.The participants were divided into tertiles based on their adherence to eachdietary pattern and the associations between dietary patterns and GDM wereinvestigated via multivariate logistic regression. Results: The findings revealedthree major dietary patterns. Adherence to the “traditional pattern” wasassociated with an increased risk of GDM. This association remained significantafter adjusting for all confounding factors (highest vs. lowest tertile: OR=3.44,95% CI=1.54-7.69, P-trend=0.001). Similarly, women in the third tertile of the“western pattern” had an elevated risk of GDM compared with those in the firsttertile (third vs. first tertile: OR=1.96, 95% CI=1.02-3.80, P-trend=0.011). Incontrast, participants who adhered to a healthy pattern had a negative associationwith GDM risk (after adjustment P-trend<0.001). Conclusions: This studydemonstrates that dietary patterns of empirically-derived prepregnancysignificantly influence the risk of GDM. These findings underscore theimportance of targeted nutritional counseling and interventions before pregnancyto mitigate GDM risk and promote maternal and fetal health