Racial or Ethnic and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Adherence to National Dietary Guidance in a Large Cohort of US Pregnant Women

Abstract Background The significance of periconceptional nutrition for optimizing offspring and maternal health and reducing social inequalities warrants greater understanding of diet quality among US women. Objective Our objective was to evaluate racial or ethnic and education inequalities in periconceptional diet quality and sources of energy and micronutrients. Design Cross-sectional analysis of data from the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-Be cohort. Participants and setting Nulliparous women (N=7,511) were enrolled across eight US medical centers from 2010 to 2013. Main outcome measures A semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire assessing usual dietary intake during the 3 months around conception was self-administered during the first trimester. Diet quality, measured using the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010), and sources of energy and micronutrients were the outcomes. Statistical analyses Differences in diet quality were tested across maternal racial or ethnic and education groups using F tests associated with analysis of variance and χ2 tests. Results HEI-2010 score increased with higher education, but the increase among non-Hispanic black women was smaller than among non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics (interaction P value