Prenatal adherence to the Mediterranean diet decreases the risk of having a small-for-gestational-age baby, ECLIPSES study

Association of Parity With Insulin Resistance Early in Pregnant Women: ECLIPSES Study

CONTEXT

Little is known about whether parity is associated with elevated early-pregnancy insulin resistance (IR), or whether overweight/obesity contributes to increasing the possible effect.

OBJECTIVE

We determined the associations between parity and glucose metabolism parameters in the first trimester of pregnancy in a Mediterranean pregnant population, and whether these associations are affected by overweight/obesity.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted of 264 healthy pregnant women from the ECLIPSES study who were recruited at 12 weeks of gestation. At baseline, details on socioeconomic status, obstetric history (including parity, ie, number of births), lifestyle factors, anthropometry, and blood samples were collected. Fasting serum glucose, insulin, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index were assessed in the first trimester. Elevated IR was defined as the upper HOMA-IR tertile (≥1.58). Multivariable linear regression and Cox regression model with constant time were performed.

RESULTS

Parity ranged from 0 to 4. After multivariable adjustment, the insulin levels (β [% change]: 20.92; 95% CI, 4.08-37.71) and HOMA-IR index (β [% change]: 19.72; 95% CI, 2.43-40.49) were positively associated with parity. Additionally, multiparous women, as compared to nulliparous, were more likely to have higher HOMA-IR levels (primiparous [1 birth], β [% change[: 16.88; 95% CI, -1.00 to 37.99; multiparous [≥2 births), β [% change]: 32.18; 95% CI, 3.56-68.71), and an increased relative risk (RR) of an elevated IR (primiparous [1 birth], RR: 1.55; 95% CI, 1.03-2.36; multiparous (≥2 births), RR: 1.72; 95% CI, 1.05-2.83). The combination of multiparity and overweight/obesity conferred a 3.04-fold increase in the RR of elevated IR, which increased proportionally to the number of parities.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that parity may have a negative effect on early-pregnancy IR and that maternal overweight/obesity appears to further aggravate this relationship.

Close Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet during Pregnancy Decreases Childhood Overweight/Obesity: A Prospective Study

The study of dietary patterns during pregnancy may be of great importance for determining the potential risk of obesity in childhood. We assessed the prospective association between maternal adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) during pregnancy and risk of childhood overweight/obesity at 4 years. This prospective analysis involved 272 mother-child pairs from the ECLIPSES study. Maternal diet during pregnancy was assessed using a validated 45-item food-frequency questionnaire and a relative whole-pregnancy MedDiet score (rMedDiet) was calculated. The children's weight and height were measured at the age of 4. Primary outcome was childhood overweight/obesity based on age- and-sex-specific BMI z-score > 85th percentile using the WHO child growth standards. Mean maternal rMedDiet score in pregnancy was 9.8 (±standard deviation 2.3) and 25.7% of the children were overweight/obese. Significant differences in anthropometric measurements (weight, height, and BMI) were found according to sex, with higher scores for boys. After controlling for potential confounders, greater maternal adherence to rMedDiet during pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of childhood overweight/obesity, highest vs. lowest quartile (OR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.12-0.90; p-trend 0.037). Similar trends regarding this association (per 1-point increase rMedDiet score) were observed after stratification by advanced maternal age, maternal early pregnancy BMI, education, socioeconomic status, smoking, and gestational weight gain. Our findings suggest that closer adherence to the MedDiet during pregnancy may protect against the risk of offspring overweight/obesity at 4 years. Further research is needed to explore whether associations persist across the life course.

Association between the Maternal Mediterranean Diet and Perinatal Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The Mediterranean diet is a global, well-known healthy dietary pattern. This review aims to synthesize the existing evidence on the relationship between the maternal Mediterranean diet during pregnancy and perinatal outcomes, including randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cohort studies. PubMed, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library were searched from inception to 10 March, 2023, supplemented by manual screening. A random-effect model was used to estimate pooled sizes with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for specific outcomes of interest. Data from 5 RCTs and 18 cohort studies with 107,355 pregnant participants were synthesized. In RCTs, it was observed that the maternal Mediterranean diet significantly reduced the incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus [odds ratio (OR), 0.56; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.93], as well as small for gestational age (0.55; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.88). In cohort studies, the highest adherence score to the maternal Mediterranean diet was inversely associated with a lower risk of various adverse pregnancy outcomes, including gestational diabetes mellitus (OR, 0.82; 95% CI: 0.67, 1.00), pregnancy-induced hypertension (0.73; 95% CI: 0.60, 0.89), pre-eclampsia (0.77; 95% CI: 0.64, 0.93), preterm delivery (0.67; 95% CI: 0.49, 0.91), low birth weight (0.70; 95% CI: 0.64, 0.78), intrauterine growth restriction (0.46; 95% CI: 0.23, 0.91), and increased gestational age at delivery (weighted mean difference, 0.11 wk; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.20). Meta-regression analyses did not identify the adjustment for confounders and geographical location as predictive factors for heterogeneity. The results suggest that adherence to the Mediterranean diet during pregnancy appears to be beneficial for perinatal outcomes. Future, larger, and higher-quality RCTs and cohort studies are warranted to confirm the present findings. PROSPERO registration no.: CRD42023406317.