Unhealthy dietary patterns are associated with weight gain during pregnancy among Finnish women

Abstract

Objective: To study whether the dietary patterns of Finnish pregnant women are associated with their weight gain rate during pregnancy. Design: A validated 181-item FFQ was applied retrospectively to assess the diet during the eighth month of pregnancy, and maternal height and maternal weight at first and last antenatal visits were recalled. Information on sociodemographic characteristics, parity and smoking of the pregnant women was obtained by a structured questionnaire and from the Finnish Birth Registry. Principal components analysis was used to identify dietary patterns that described the diet of pregnant women based on their food consumption profile. Setting: Finland. Subjects: Subjects consisted of 3360 women who had newly delivered in 1997-2002 and whose baby carried human leucocyte antigen-conferred susceptibility to type 1 diabetes in two university hospital regions, Oulu and Tampere, in Finland. Results: Out of seven dietary patterns identified, the 'fast food' pattern was positively associated (b 5 0?010, SE 5 0?003, P 5 0?004) and the 'alcohol and butter' pattern was inversely associated (b 5 -0?010, SE 5 0?003, P , 0?0001) with weight gain rate (kg/week) during pregnancy after adjusting for potential dietary, perinatal and sociodemographic confounding factors. Both of the dietary pattern associations demonstrated dose dependency. Conclusions: Pregnant women should be guided to have a well-planned, balanced, healthy diet during pregnancy in order to avoid rapid gestational weight gain. The association between diet, health and maternal weight gain of the women who consumed alcohol during pregnancy should be studied further.

Fast Food Consumption and Gestational Diabetes Incidence in the SUN Project

“…It has been previously shown that a ‘fast food’ dietary pattern was associated with weight gain rate during pregnancy in a dose-dependent manner in a study conducted in Finland [40]. The result of that study is indirectly supportive of our findings.…”

Development of a New Nordic Diet score and its association with gestational weight gain and fetal growth – a study performed in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa)

“…Few studies have explored dietary patterns in relation to GWG. Uusitalo et al reported a dose-response association of a 'fast-food pattern' with rate of GWG, whereas an inversely associated 'healthy pattern' was not statistically significant (30) . Stuebe et al investigated associations of several dietary and nutritional aspects with risk for excessive GWG in 1388 pregnant women and found total energy intake, dairy and fried foods to be directly associated with risk of excessive GWG, whereas a vegetarian diet in the first trimester was inversely associated with excessive GWG (31) .…”

Pre-Pregnancy Fast Food Consumption Is Associated with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus among Tehranian Women

“…In a prospective study, pre-pregnancy body mass index was a stronger predictor of GDM than diet quality during pregnancy [24]. A high weight gain rate during pregnancy may also be relevant to the pathophysiology of GDM [31,32]; the ‘fast food’ dietary pattern (characterized by higher consumption of sweets, soft drinks, hamburgers, pizza and other fast foods), in a dose-dependent manner, has also been associated with higher weight gain during pregnancy [33]. Moreover, dietary factors such as refined and high-glycemic-index carbohydrates are other threatening factors that may contribute to impaired insulin secretion and pancreatic β-cell function, and induced insulin resistance before pregnancy [34], and lead to GDM during pregnancy [12,35].…”