Effect of Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet and Olive Oil Intake during Pregnancy on Risk of Small for Gestational Age Infants

Abstract

To quantify the effect of a Mediterranean dietary pattern, as well as the consumption of olive oil (OO), on the risk of having a small for gestational age infants (SGA), a matched case-control study was conducted in Spain. Dietary intake during pregnancy was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Three indices were used to evaluate the adherence to Mediterranean diet (MD) (Predimed, Trichopoulou and Panagiotakos). Crude odds ratios (cOR) and adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using conditional logistic regression models. Results were stratified by severity of SGA: moderate (percentiles 6–10), and severe (percentiles ≤5). For moderate, four or more points in the Predimed´s index was associated with a 41% reduction of having SGA compared with women with a score ≤3, aOR = 0.59 (95% CI 0.38–0.98); for severe, the reduction in risk was not statistically significant. Similar results were found when the other MD indexes were used. An intake of OO above 5 g/day was associated with a lower risk of SGA (aOR = 0.53, 95% CI 0.34–0.85); statistical significance was observed for moderate SGA (aOR = 0.53, 95% CI 0.30–0.96), but not for severe SGA (aOR = 0.51, 95% CI 0.24–1.07), although the magnitude of ORs were quite similar. Adherence to a MD and OO intake is associated with a reduced risk of SGA.

Adherence to Mediterranean Diet and Maternal Lifestyle during Pregnancy: Island–Mainland Differentiation in the CRIBS Birth Cohort

“…Nowadays, when these so-called elite-products are equally available, people from Croatian insular, rural regions turn to them more often [ 17 ]. Even though the adherence to the Mediterranean diet was reported to be beneficial for the newborn body size or delivery mode in some other studies [ 9 ], it did not show significant correlation in our study.…”

“…It is characterized by a high intake of whole foods, fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals, legumes, fish, and nuts and extra-virgin olive oil, low-to-moderate consumption of dairy products, smaller amounts of white meat and red wine, and a minimal consumption of processed food, red meat, animal fats, and sugar [ 3 ]. In this context, the beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet on the mother’s health during gestation, as well as the importance of maternal health for the child later in life has been well established [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. However, the influence of the maternal diet is also interlinked with many other lifestyle factors, including smoking, body mass index (BMI), education, age, urban versus rural residency etc., [ 11 ].…”

Nutrition in Reproductive Health: Nutritional Conditioning Factors during Pregnancy and Its Impact on Health

“…Nut consumption during early pregnancy is associated with long-term childhood neuropsychological development. A maternal diet with significant consumption of pastries during pregnancy, consisting mainly of baked and sugary products, combined with a longer period of breastfeeding, can lead to the development of food allergies, suggesting a harmful effect of trans fat in the baby [58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. The maternal diet can even cushion the risk of other risk factors for neonatal pathology [63].…”

Maternal dietary patterns during pregnancy derived by reduced-rank regression and birth weight in the Chinese population

“…The principal component analyses (PCA) are a common method to obtain the DP. Evidence showed that DP derived from PCA are related to the susceptibility for developing LBW and SGA (18)(19)(20) . However, the PCA could not capture the patterns that were most strongly related to the outcome (21) .…”