Maternal diet during pregnancy is associated with bone mineral density in children: a longitudinal study

Abstract

Objective: To describe the association between maternal diet during the third trimester of pregnancy and bone mass in 8 y-old male and female children. Design: Longitudinal study. Setting: Southern Tasmania between 1988 and 1996. Subjects: One-hundred and seventy-three 8 -y-old male and female children with adequate maternal dietary information taking part in a study of bone mineralization. Results: After adjustment for confounders, femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) was positively associated with magnesium and phosphorus density of the maternal diet; lumbar spine BMD was positively associated with magnesium, phosphorus and potassium and negatively associated with fat density while total body BMD was positively associated with magnesium, potassium and protein and negatively associated with fat density (all P`0.05). After further adjustment for other signi®cant dietary factors, the only signi®cant remaining associations observed were for phosphorus and fat at the lumbar spine, although the adjusted goodness of ®t of the models improved compared to those including one dietary variable. A child in the`optimal' levels of dietary exposures had signi®cantly higher adjusted BMD at all sites (femoral neck, 5.5%, lumbar spine, 12%, total body, 6.8%). Calcium intake was not associated with BMD at any site, possibly due to a high average intake. Conclusions: This study reports a substantial association between in utero diet in a well-nourished population and later bone mass in their children. However, it does not allow identi®cation of the dietary components of greatest importance, indicating that these results should be regarded as hypothesis-generating. Further longitudinal studies in other populations are required to con®rm that dietary manipulation during pregnancy has a role to play in the early life prevention of osteoporosis.

The association between maternal diet during pregnancy and bone mass of the children at age 16

“…The subjects were part of an original cohort of individuals enrolled in 1988-1989 as part of an investigation of sudden infant death syndrome by previously published criteria (Dwyer et al, 1991;Jones et al, 2000). Tasmania is an island state of Australia, and 99% residents were Caucasian.…”

“…Both questionnaires included standard serve sizes, however to be more appropriate for children, the serve sizes given in the PFFQ were occasionally smaller than those in the AFFQ. The PFFQ was used until October of 1988 and then adult serving sizes after that time (Jones et al, 2000). All analyses were adjusted for type of FFQ.…”

“…In an exploratory analysis, we reported a substantial association between in utero diet, especially phosphorus and fat intake, and bone mass in their children at age 8 (Jones et al, 2000). Maternal vitamin D status and intake of nutrients such as protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and folate in pregnancy have been shown to predict height, bone mineral content (BMC), bone area and areal bone mineral density (BMD) in prepubertal children (Jones et al, 2000;Tobias et al, 2005;Ganpule et al, 2006;Javaid et al, 2006). To date, studies have followed children up to age 6-9 but not through puberty, so it is unclear if these associations are short or long term.…”

Calcium economy in human pregnancy and lactation

“…An observational study in India among women with a low Ca intake reported that women with a higher frequency of intake of Ca-rich foods during pregnancy had children with higher BMC and aBMD of the spine and whole body at 6 years of age than mothers with lower intakes of Ca-rich foods (226) . However, in an Australian longitudinal study, no association was found between maternal dietary intake of Ca during pregnancy and aBMD at the spine, hip or whole body of their children at 8 years of age (227) . Additionally, in the Gambian study described above (24) , there was no evidence of a beneficial effect of Ca supplementation in pregnancy on skeletal dimensions as measured by crown -heel length and head circumference at 12 months of age (24) or on stature at age 5-10 years (228) .…”

Maternal diet, breastfeeding and adolescent body composition: a 16-year prospective study

“…We previously reported association between maternal diet during pregnancy, breastfeeding and bone mineral density of offspring at 8 and 16 years. [11][12][13] Therefore, the aim of this study was to use a birth cohort study to investigate the associations between maternal diet during the third trimester of pregnancy, breastfeeding and subsequent long-term body composition of offspring at 16 year.…”