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Nutrition and metabolism
Original research
Associations of maternal diet with infant adiposity at birth, 6 months and 12 months
  1. Sarah Gonzalez-Nahm1,
  2. Cathrine Hoyo2,
  3. Truls Østbye3,
  4. Brian Neelon4,
  5. Carter Allen4,
  6. Sara E Benjamin-Neelon1
  1. 1 Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  2. 2 Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
  3. 3 Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA
  4. 4 Public Health Sciences, Division of Biostatistics, The Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sarah Gonzalez-Nahm; sarah.nahm{at}jhu.edu

Abstract

Objectives To assess associations between maternal prenatal diet quality and infant adiposity.

Design The design was a prospective birth cohort.

Setting We used data from the Nurture study, a cohort of women and their infants residing in the southeastern USA.

Participants and exposure assessment Between 2013 and 2015, we enrolled 860 women between 20 and 36 weeks’ gestation. After reconsenting at delivery and excluding women with implausible calorie intakes, we measured dietary intake using the Block food frequency questionnaire, and assessed diet quality using a modified Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010 (AHEI-2010), which assessed intake of 10 food categories, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts/legumes, fats, meats, beverages and sodium (excluding alcohol).

Outcomes We assessed birth weight for gestational age z-score, small and large for gestational age, low birth weight and macrosomia. Outcomes at 6 and 12 months were weight-for-length z-score, sum of subscapular and triceps skinfold thickness (SS+TR) and subscapular-to-triceps skinfold ratio (SS:TR).

Results Among mothers, 70.2% were black and 20.9% were white; less than half (45.2%) reported having a high school diploma or less. Among infants, 8.7% were low birth weight and 8.6% were small for gestational age. Unadjusted estimates showed that a higher AHEI-2010 score, was associated with a higher birth weight for gestational z-score (β=0.01; 95% CI 0.002 to 0.02; p=0.02) and a greater likelihood of macrosomia (OR=1.04; 95% CI 1.004 to 1.09; p=0.03). After adjustment, maternal diet quality was not associated with infant adiposity at birth, 6 or 12 months.

Conclusions Although poor maternal diet quality during pregnancy was not associated with infant adiposity in our study, maternal diet during pregnancy may still be an important and modifiable factor of public health importance.

  • maternal diet
  • infant adiposity
  • AHEI-2010
  • birth weight

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030186

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors SG-N and CA conducted the analysis. SG-N drafted the manuscript. SEB-N and BN oversaw the analysis. SEB-N, BN, CA, TO and CH reviewed and edited the manuscript. SG-N, SEB-N, CH, TO, BN and CA approved the final manuscript.

    • Funding This study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (R01DK094841).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval Women provided written, informed consent for themselves and their infants to participate in the study. The Institutional Review Board of Duke University Medical Centre approved this study and its protocol (reference number: Pro00036242).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available upon reasonable request.