Dietary patterns in pregnancy and associations with socio-demographic and lifestyle factors

Abstract

Objective: To obtain distinct dietary patterns in the third trimester of pregnancy using principal components analysis (PCA); to determine associations with socio-demographic and lifestyle factors. Design and methods: A total of 12 053 pregnant women partaking in a population-based cohort study recorded current frequency of food consumption via questionnaire in 1991-1992. Dietary patterns identified using PCA were related to social and demographic characteristics and lifestyle factors. Results: Five dietary patterns were established and labelled to best describe the types of diet being consumed in pregnancy. The 'health conscious' component described a diet based on salad, fruit, rice, pasta, breakfast cereals, fish, eggs, pulses, fruit juices, white meat and non-white bread. The 'traditional' component loaded highly on all types of vegetables, red meat and poultry. The 'processed' component was associated with high-fat processed foods. The 'confectionery' component was characterized by snack foods with high sugar content and the final 'vegetarian' component loaded highly on meat substitutes, pulses, nuts and herbal tea and high negative loadings were seen with red meat and poultry. There were strong associations between various socio-demographic variables and all dietary components; in particular, a 'health conscious' diet was positively associated with increasing education and age and non-white women. There was a negative association with increased parity, single, nonworking women, those who smoked and who were overweight pre-pregnancy. Opposite associations were seen with the 'processed' component. Conclusions: Distinct dietary patterns in pregnancy have been identified. There is clear evidence of social patterning associated with the dietary patterns, these social factors need to be accounted for in future studies using dietary patterns. This study will form the basis for further work investigating pregnancy outcome.

Consequences and Possible Predictors of Health-damaging Behaviors and Mental Health Problems in Pregnancy – A Review

“…folic acid) is commonly associated with a younger maternal age, immigrant status, a lower level of education, and being unemployed [77-78, 81-82, 84, 86-87]. Single women or unmarried women in a steady relationship were also more prone not to eat health-consciously [77,81,86]. It is possible that a lack of integration in social relationships and a lack of social support encourages unhealthy eating habits [37,77], but because of the limited number of studies it is not possible to draw clear conclusions on this point.…”

“…Pregnant women with anxiety symptoms also appeared to have a tendency to eat less healthily (e.g. frequent consumption of sugary foods) [77,81]. Baskin et al [38] interpreted the correlations between poor quality nutrition and mental health problems analogously to nicotine and alcohol consumption as constituting a type of coping mechanism; on the other hand the authors speculated that limited drive and low motivation to pay attention to oneʼs own diet over the course of the entire pregnancy could play an important role.…”

“…Baskin et al [38] interpreted the correlations between poor quality nutrition and mental health problems analogously to nicotine and alcohol consumption as constituting a type of coping mechanism; on the other hand the authors speculated that limited drive and low motivation to pay attention to oneʼs own diet over the course of the entire pregnancy could play an important role. Important health-related factors and behaviors which are associated with malnutrition include reduced physical activity [77], being overweight or obese pre-pregnancy [81,84,85] and the continued consumption of nicotine or alcohol during pregnancy [51,67,77,79,81,86,87]. Pregnant smokers, for example, were more likely to live on a diet of fatty foods (e.g.…”

“…junk food, chips) [81,87] compared to pregnant non-smokers and also were much less likely to take folic acid supplements [51,67,79,86]. A diet lacking in micronutrients was more common among women who had already given birth to several children [78,79,82,86], while indications of an unhealthy and unbalanced diet were reported for both nullipara and multipara [77,81,84,87]. The possible determinants for excessive weight gain have often been investigated.…”

“…Psychological factors " prenatal depression/anxiety [51,53,54,59, 68] " stress/critical life events [54] " experience of abuse/ill-treatment [36] " stress/critical life events [52] " prenatal depression/anxiety [38,81,87] " stress/critical life events [38,76] " prenatal depression/anxiety [41,42] " stress/critical life events [45,48] …”