Abstract
Dietary pattern is excellent in reflecting an individual’s eating conditions.Longitudinal data on fetal growth can reflect the process of intrauterine growth. We aimed to evaluate the associations between maternal dietary patterns and intrauterine parameters in middle and late pregnancy. The present study was conducted within Jiangsu Birth Cohort (JBC) study. Dietary information was assessed with a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in the second and third trimester of gestation. B-ultrasound scans were performed to obtain fetal intrauterine parameters, including head circumference (HC), femur length (FL), abdominal circumference (AC), and estimated fetal weight (EFW).Exploratory factor analysis was used to extract dietary patterns. Multiple linear regression and linear mixed-effects model (LMM) were used to investigate theassociation between maternaldietary patterns and fetal growth. A total of 1,936pregnant women were eligible for the study. We observed inverse associationsof maternal Vegetables and fish and “Snack and less eggs patterns duringmid-pregnancy with fetal HC Z-score, respectively (Vegetables and fish.B= -0.09,95% Cl-0.12,-0.06;“Snack and less eggs:p=-0.05, 95% CI-0.08-0.02). On the contrary, Animal internal organs, thallophyte and shellfish'pattern in the second trimester was associated with increased HC Z-scores(B = 0.04, 95% CI 0.02, 0.06). Consistently, score increase in Vegetables andfish pattern in the third trimester was inversely associated with the Z-scores ofHC (B = -0.05, 95% CI -0.09, -0.02), while Meat and less nuts pattern waspositively correlated with the Z-scores of HC (B = 0.04, 95% CI 0.02, 0.07). Ascompared to the fetus whose mothers at the lowest tertile of Snack and lesseggs pattern in both trimesters, those whose mothers at the highest tertiledemonstrated 1.08 fold (RR = 2.10, 95% CI 1.34-3.28) increased risk of smallHC for gestational age (GA). No correlation was observed between maternal dietary patterns and other intrauterine parameters. Our results suggested the effects of maternal dietary patterns on fetal growth, particularly HC. Thesefindings highlighted the adverse impact of unhealthy dietary pattern on fetagrowth, might provide evidence for strategies to prevent intrauterine dysplasiaand dietary guidelines during pregnancy.
KEYWORDS
prospective study, pregnancy, dietary patterns, B-ultrasound, intrauterine development
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.985665
