Maternal dietary patterns during pregnancy and offspring cardiometabolic health at age 6 years: The generation R study

Summary Background & aims Maternal nutrition during pregnancy might be important in influencing offspring cardiometabolic health. However, research has focused mostly on specific nutrients or total energy, and possible effects of whole diet are unclear. We aimed to assess the associations between different dietary patterns during pregnancy and offspring cardiometabolic health among 2592 mother–child pairs from Generation R, a prospective population-based cohort study from fetal life onwards in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Methods Maternal diet was assessed in early pregnancy with a food-frequency questionnaire. We identified three a posteriori- dietary patterns, namely a ‘Vegetable, fish and oil’, ‘Nuts, soy and high-fiber cereals’ and ‘Margarine, snacks and sugar’-pattern. An a priori- pattern was created based on the ‘Dutch Healthy Diet Index’. Cardiometabolic health (pulse wave velocity, blood pressure, insulin, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides) was measured at the child's age of 6 years. Results In the crude models, the ‘Vegetable, fish and oil’, ‘Nuts, soy and high-fiber cereals’ and ‘Dutch Healthy Diet Index’ seemed beneficial, as higher adherence to these patterns was significantly associated with lower blood pressure and lower pulse wave velocity. After adjustment for other socio-demographic and lifestyle factors, most associations disappeared, except for lower pulse wave velocity with the ‘Vegetable, fish and oil’-dietary pattern (−0.19 SD (95% CI −0.33; −0.06), highest quartile of adherence vs. lowest quartile). No associations were found between maternal dietary patterns and offspring blood lipids or insulin levels. Conclusions Our results suggest that there are no consistent independent associations of maternal dietary patterns with offspring cardiometabolic health at 6 years.