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Dietary patterns and associated lifestyles in preconception, pregnancy and postpartum

Abstract

Objective:

To identify dietary patterns in women who are planning immediate pregnancy in preconception, weeks 6, 10, 26 and 38 of pregnancy, and 6 months postpartum, and to describe how particular lifestyles, the body mass index (BMI) and sociodemographic factors are associated to these patterns.

Design:

Longitudinal study throughout the reproductive cycle of food consumption carried out in a Spanish Mediterranean city.

Setting:

Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Rovira i Virgili University.

Subjects:

In total, 80 healthy female volunteers who were planning immediate pregnancy.

Interventions:

A seven-consecutive-day dietary record was used to evaluate the dietary intake. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the main dietary patterns in each of the periods. Fitted multiple linear regression models were used to study the associations between the lifestyle and sociodemographic variables, and each dietary pattern.

Results:

The ‘sweetened beverages and sugars’ pattern was identified from preconception to 6 months postpartum and the ‘vegetables and meat’ pattern to the end of pregnancy. The ‘sweetened beverages and sugars’ pattern is positively associated with smoking and negatively associated with physical activity before conception and in the first trimester of pregnancy. The ‘vegetables and meat’ pattern is negatively associated with the BMI during the preconception period and positively associated with age in weeks 10 and 38 of pregnancy. It is shown that the patterns do not change significantly throughout the period studied.

Conclusions:

We have identified two stable dietary patterns from preconception to postpartum. The ‘sweetened beverages and sugars’ pattern is associated with habits of risk for the health of the pregnant woman and her offspring.

Sponsorship:

‘Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología’ (CICYT: ALI89-0388) and ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’, RCMN (C03/08), Madrid, Spain'.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Mr John Bates, the head of the English language department of the University Rovira i Virgili, for the translation of the manuscript. This project was supported in part by a Grant from ‘Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología’ (CICYT: ALI89-0388) of the Spanish government and in part by a Grant from the FIS of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Red de Centros RCMN (C03/08), Madrid, Spain.

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Correspondence to G Cucó.

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Guarantor: J Fernández-Ballart.

Contributors: Credit goes to JF-B for the generation of the idea for investigation of this topic, literature search, retrieval of articles, design of the study, supervision of data extraction, statistical advise, data analysis, design of the article, comments drafts, coordination of communication among all investigators, and approval of the final version of the article. GC too assisted in the generation of the idea for investigation of this topic, design, production and writing of the article, literature search, retrieval of articles, data extraction, data analysis, design of the article, and gave approval for the final version of the article. JS and CV performed literature search, retrieval of articles, supervision of data extraction, statistical advise, data analysis, design of the article, comments drafts, and gave approval for the final version of the article. RI, JV and VA, carried out data extraction, data analysis, design of the article, comments drafts, and gave approval for the final version of the article.

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Cucó, G., Fernández-Ballart, J., Sala, J. et al. Dietary patterns and associated lifestyles in preconception, pregnancy and postpartum. Eur J Clin Nutr 60, 364–371 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602324

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