Abstract
This study aimed to derive a maternal dietary pattern to explain the variation in B vitamins during pregnancy and to investigate this pattern in relation to birth outcomes. A total of 7347 women who gave birth to live newborns less than one year were included. Their dietary pattern during pregnancy was derived using the reduced-rank regression method with six B vitamins as response variables. Associations between dietary pattern score and birth weight, gestational age at delivery, birth weight Z score, low birth weight, preterm, and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) were estimated using generalised linear mixed models. We identified a high B-vitamin dietary pattern characterised by high intakes of animal foods, vegetables, fungi and algae, legumes, and low intakes of oils and cereals. Women in the highest quartile of this pattern score had newborns with a 44.5 g (95% CI: 13.8, 75.2 g) higher birth weight, 0.101 (95% CI: 0.029, 0.172) higher birth weight Z score, and 27.2% (OR: 0.728; 95% CI: 0.582, 0.910) lower risk of SGA than those in the lowest quartile. Our study suggested that adherence to the high B-vitamin dietary pattern during pregnancy was associated with a higher birth weight and a lower risk of SGA.
Highlights
Birth outcomes, which commonly refer to birth weight and gestational age, are closely related to the morbidity and mortality of infants and young children [1,2], but are key predictors of chronic non-communicable diseases in adulthood [3,4,5]
Based on the cross-sectional data in northwest China, we aimed to identify a maternal dietary pattern that maximally explains the variation in B vitamins using the rank regression (RRR) method
The association was not significant among users (p > 0.05) (Figure S4). This population-based study conducted in northwest China identified a high B-vitamin dietary pattern, which was characterised by high intakes of animal foods, vegetables, fungi and algae, legumes, and low intakes of oils and cereals
Summary
Birth outcomes, which commonly refer to birth weight and gestational age, are closely related to the morbidity and mortality of infants and young children [1,2], but are key predictors of chronic non-communicable diseases in adulthood [3,4,5]. According to the latest WHO data, China ranks among the top five countries worldwide in terms of the number of adverse birth outcomes such as preterm, low birth weight (LBW), and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) [7,8,9]. Some epidemiologic studies have reported that maternal dietary intakes of B vitamins are inversely related to the risk of adverse birth outcomes [12,13,14]
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