Associations of Dietary Patterns during Pregnancy with Gestational Hypertension: The “Born in Shenyang” Cohort Study

Abstract

The literature on maternal dietary patterns and gestational hypertension (GH) risk is largely ambiguous. We investigated the associations of maternal dietary patterns with GH risk among 1092 pregnant women in a Chinese pre-birth cohort. We used both three-day food diaries (TFD) and food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) to assess the diets of pregnant women. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify dietary patterns from the TFD and FFQ, respectively. In total, 14.5% of the participants were diagnosed with GH. Maternal adherence to a “Wheaten food–coarse cereals pattern (TFD)” was associated with a lower risk of GH (quartile 3 [Q3] vs. Q1, odds ratio [OR] = 0.53, 95%CI: 0.31, 0.90). Maternal adherence to a “Sweet food–seafood pattern (TFD)” was associated with lower systolic blood pressure (Q4 vs. Q1, β = −2.57, 95%CI: −4.19, −0.96), and mean arterial pressure (Q4 vs. Q1, β = −1.54, 95%CI: −2.70, −0.38). The protective associations of the “Sweet food-seafood (TFD)” and “Fish–seafood pattern (FFQ)” with the risk of GH were more pronounced among women who were overweight/obese before pregnancy (p for interaction < 0.05 for all). The findings may help to develop interventions and better identify target populations for hypertension prevention during pregnancy.

Dietary Patterns, Food Intake and Health: New Evidence from Epidemiological and Genetic Studies

“…Dietary patterns play an essential role in shaping overall health. Mateo-Orcajada and colleagues investigated levels of adherence to Mediterranean diet-one of the healthiest dietary patterns [1], while both Hu et al and Marinoni et al applied principal component analyses to identify specific dietary patterns among the participants [2,3]. Specifically, characteristics of physical activity and anthropometric measurements among 791 Spanish adolescents were described, categorized by levels of adherence to Mediterranean diet and body mass index (BMI) [1].…”

“…Specifically, characteristics of physical activity and anthropometric measurements among 791 Spanish adolescents were described, categorized by levels of adherence to Mediterranean diet and body mass index (BMI) [1]. Hu et al found that women's adherence to wheaten food-coarse cereals pattern in 21-24 gestational weeks was associated with a lower risk of gestational hypertension in one subgroup [2], although an association did not show a clear dose-response relationship among all 1082 participants, which requires further validations and subsequent investigations of potential mechanisms. Results from Marinoni's crosssectional study of dietary patterns on cognitive performance in 379 Italian children showed that a concurrent diet based on fish consumption may be associated with better verbal abilities and perceptual reasoning, diets based on meat and potatoes were associated with worse verbal abilities, and diets based on dairy products were associated with reduced processing speed [3].…”