Blackmores Institute

Using data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, an ongoing large longitudinal population-based prospective cohort study, the researchers found that greater adherence to a diet pattern defined as ‘traditional vegetables’ before pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of preterm birth, particularly spontaneous preterm birth. “We used the Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2015) score to examine maternal diet quality and the association between pre-pregnancy dietary patterns and preterm birth and low birthweight. Four dietary patterns were extracted: The first pattern was labelled “meats and high-fats” and had high positive factor loadings for pork, veal, beef, lamb, chicken, fried fish, hamburger, sausage, salami, bacon, potato chips, and meat pies. The second pattern, “prudent diets” had high positive factor loadings for oranges, mushrooms, zucchini, capsicum, spinach, garlic, tofu, lettuce, avocado, cucumber, soya milk, apples, and tinned fish.“The third, “sugars, refined grains, and processed foods” had positive factor loadings for pasta, cakes, sweet biscuits, chocolate, pizza, meat pies, potato chips, tomato sauce, fried potatoes, crackers, rice, as well as negative factor loadings for cucumber and lettuce. The fourth, “traditional vegetables” had high positive factor loadings for carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, pumpkin, green beans, and cabbages. These dietary patterns explained 17% of the total variation in food intake and the prevalence of preterm birth was higher in the lowest third (Tertile 1) of adherence to the traditional vegetables pattern,” the authors explained.According to the study, previous studies on pre-pregnancy nutrition have produced inconsistent results, with authors claiming that only four studies to date have documented the relation between preconception dietary patterns and the risk of preterm birth and low birth weight.Researchers noted that in their study the association between traditional vegetable patterns and preterm birth was largely explained by pre-pregnancy BMI, suggesting that it was a key potential confounder and may also be a causal pathway of the association between vegetable intake and preterm birth. “Obese women with greater adherence to the HEI-2015 score before conception were found to have a lower risk of having preterm infants and few studies have reported the interaction effects of pre-pregnancy BMI in the association between maternal diets and adverse birth outcomes.“Pre-pregnancy obesity and poor diet quality could affect birth outcomes independently through the inflammation pathway or/and epigenetic modulation. They might also have a synergistic or cumulative effect on elevating the concentration of inflammatory mediators or cytokines, which might increase the risk of adverse birth outcomes,” the authors said. The study results suggest that the pre-pregnancy dietary pattern of traditional vegetables, characterised by a higher intake of carrots, potatoes, cauliflowers, broccoli, pumpkins, cabbages, and green beans is associated with a lower risk of preterm birth, mainly spontaneous preterm birth. However, the study also suggests that there is an association between BMI and preterm birth.“This study also suggests a beneficial effect of diet quality before pregnancy, which is important in countries where obesity and preterm birth are prevalent. Additional research is needed to quantify the mediating effects of pre-pregnancy BMI in the association between pre-pregnancy dietary patterns and preterm birth,” the authors concluded.Source:
 Am J Clin Nutr. 2020. DOI: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa057">10.1093/ajcn/nqaa057</a>

Australian researchers from the University of Queensland are calling for further studies on pre-pregnancy nutrition for women following results of their study showing that dietary patterns are associated with reduced risk of preterm births.

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