Dietary Intake of Pregnant Women with and without Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the United States

Abstract

Background: Pregnancy is a vulnerable time where the lives of mother and baby are affected by diet, especially high-risk pregnancies in women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Limited research has examined diet during pregnancy with IBD. Aims: Describe and compare the diet quality of pregnant women with and without IBD, and examine associations between dietary intake and guidelines during pregnancy. Methods: Three 24 h recalls were utilized to assess the diets of pregnant women with IBD (n = 88) and without IBD (n = 82) during 27–29 weeks of gestation. A customized frequency questionnaire was also administered to measure pre- and probiotic foods. Results: Zinc intake (p = 0.02), animal protein (g) (p = 0.03), and ounce equivalents of whole grains (p = 0.03) were significantly higher in the healthy control (HC) group than the IBD group. Nutrients of concern with no significant differences between groups included iron (3% IBD and 2% HC met the goals), saturated fat (only 1% of both groups met the goals), choline (23% IBD and 21% HC met the goals), magnesium (38% IBD and 35% HC met the goals), calcium (48% IBD and 60% HC met the goals), and water intake (49% IBD and 48% HC met the goals). Conclusions: Most pregnant women in this cohort fell short of the dietary nutrients recommended in pregnancy, especially concerning for women with IBD.

Association of diet and inflammation with the vaginal microbiota of pregnant individuals with or without IBD

“…Recruitment: We conducted a case–control study nested into our ongoing MELODY Trial (9) including participants with 27 th –29 th weeks of gestation before any dietary intervention. Pregnant women with and without IBD were recruited nationwide under approved IRB protocol (IRB # H00016462) as previously described (10) (see supplementary methods). IBD disease activity was evaluated using validated scoring systems, namely the Harvey Bradshaw index (11) for participants with CD and the 6-point Mayo score (12) for participants with UC.…”

“…Dietary assessment: We conducted 24-hour dietary recalls (24HDRs) around the same time as vaginal/stool collection and estimated the Healthy Eating index-2015 (HEI-2015) as previously described by us (10) (see supplementary methods). Wilcoxon test was used to compare HEI-2015 and its dietary components by health status and CST.…”