Pre-Pregnancy Diet Quality Is Associated with Lowering the Risk of Offspring Obesity and Underweight: Finding from a Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Maternal diet plays a critical role in epigenetic changes and the establishment of the gut microbiome in the fetus, which has been associated with weight outcomes in offspring. This study examined the association between maternal diet quality before pregnancy and childhood body mass index (BMI) in offspring. There were 1936 mothers with 3391 children included from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) and the Mothers and their Children’s Health (MatCH) study. Maternal dietary intakes were assessed using a semi-quantitative and validated 101-item food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ). The healthy eating index (HEI-2015) score was used to explore preconception diet quality. Childhood BMI was categorized as underweight, normal, overweight, and obese based on sex and age-specific BMI classifications for children. Multinomial logistic regression with cluster-robust standard errors was used for analyses. Greater adherence to maternal diet quality before pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of offspring being underweight after adjustment for potential confounders, highest vs. lowest quartile (relative risk ratio (RRR) = 0.68, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.49, 0.96). Higher adherence to preconception diet quality was also inversely linked with the risk of childhood obesity (RRR = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.24, 0.98). This association was, however, no longer significant after adjusting for pre-pregnancy BMI. Sodium intake was significantly associated with decreased risk of childhood overweight and obesity (RRR = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.14, 0.23) and (RRR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.17, 0.26), respectively. No significant association was detected between preconception diet quality and offspring being overweight. This study suggests that better adherence to maternal diet quality before pregnancy is associated with a reduced risk of childhood underweight and obesity.

Parental adherence to healthy lifestyles in relation to the risk of obesity in offspring: A prospective cohort study in China

“…Several studies have been conducted to evaluate the roles of parental lifestyle factors on obesity in offspring, demonstrating that parental obesity was associated with a higher risk of obesity in offspring [15,39]. Conversely, few studies examined the role of parental diet in offspring obesity, and were primarily conducted before or during pregnancy; they suggested that adherence to a better maternal diet was associated with a reduced risk of obesity in childhood [40][41][42]. We found that normal BMI and diverse dietary intake in parents, especially fathers, were associated with a lower risk of offspring obesity.…”

Risk factors in the first 1000 days of life associated with childhood obesity: a systematic review and risk factor quality assessment

“…Only 1 study 14 reported paternal overweight or obesity as risk factor for childhood obesity. 4 observational studies [15][16][17][18] focused on the associations of maternal lifestyle factors during preconception with childhood obesity risk. 2 observational studies 15,16 showed that maternal smoking in the preconception period was associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity, whereas no associations with the risk of childhood obesity were reported for maternal preconception diet 15,17 or physical activity 15,18 .…”

Association Between Healthy Eating Index-2015 and Kidney Stones in American Adults: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of NHANES 2007–2018

“…The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is a diet quality measure used to assess how well a set of foods aligns with key recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans ( 5 ). HEI can quantitatively assess the diet quality of various human groups and examine the prospective and cross-sectional links of diet quality with health outcomes, such as offspring overweight ( 6 ), risk for all-cause mortality of cardiovascular diseases and cancers ( 7 ), and depression ( 8 ). HEI-2015 as the most current version meets the main recommendations of the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans ( 5 ).…”