Gestational dietary patterns are not associated with blood pressure changes during pregnancy and early postpartum in a Brazilian prospective cohort

PURPOSE: To identify gestational dietary patterns and evaluate the association between these patterns and the blood pressure (BP) rate of change during pregnancy and the postpartum. METHODS: Prospective cohort study composed of 191 healthy pregnant women. Systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) were obtained at the 5th–13th, 20th–26th, 30th–36th gestational weeks, and with 30–45 days postpartum. A food frequency questionnaire administered at the 30th–36th gestational week was used to measure dietary intake during pregnancy. Principal component analysis was performed to identify the dietary patterns. A longitudinal linear mixed-effects regression model was used to evaluate the association between the dietary patterns and BP (adjusted for time elapsed after conception and the women’s age, education, parity, body mass index and total energy intake). RESULTS: Three gestational dietary patterns were identified: healthy, common-Brazilian and processed. SBP/DBP mean values (SD) were 110.1 (9.0)/66.9 (7.5), 108.7 (9.0)/64.9 (6.7), 111.3 (9.2)/67.0 (6.9) and 115.0 (10.7)/73.7 (8.6) mmHg at the first, second and third gestational trimesters and postpartum, respectively. Women with higher/lower adherence to the processed pattern presented SBP of 117.9 and 113.0 mmHg (P = 0.037), respectively, during postpartum. No association was found between any of the three dietary patterns and SBP in the multiple longitudinal linear regression models, whereas 1 SD increase in the common-Brazilian pattern was associated with a small change of DBP (β = 0.0006; 95 % CI 4.66e-06, 0.001; P = 0.048). CONCLUSION: The three dietary patterns identified revealed no association with changes of SBP and DBP levels during pregnancy and at early postpartum in this sample of healthy Brazilian women.