January 03, 2023
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Source/Disclosures
Disclosures:
Makarem reported receiving grants from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the NIH for research outside of the study.
According to a study published in, women who adhere to the Mediterranean diet have a 30% lower chance of preeclampsia when compared to those who do not. JAMA Network Open.
The Mediterranean diet — which includes high intake of fruits, leafy green vegetables, nuts, cereal and extra virgin olive oil and moderate intake of dairy products, fish and other meat — has previously been linked to improved cognition and a lower risk for frailty. It was also voted the best overall diet. U.S. News & World Report Over the past few years.
Data derived by: Makarem N. et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.48165.
Nour Makarem (PhD, MS), an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and colleagues conducted the current study to better understand “whether concordance to a Mediterranean diet pattern around the time of conception” impacted the risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs).
This analysis was based on data from 7,798 pregnancies. 19.5% were obese, 16.6% Hispanic, and 9.7% were 35-years-old or older. Makarem and colleagues scored each mother on a scale from zero to nine points based on their adherence to the diet, with six to nine points constituting a “high Mediterranean diet score.”
Overall, the researchers found that greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with a lower risk of APOs — which were defined as developing preeclampsia or eclampsia, preterm birth, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, stillbirth or delivery of a small-for-gestational-age infant — “with evidence of a dose-response association,” suggesting that “women with the highest concordance to this diet pattern prior to conception had the lowest risk of developing APOs.”
They found that the mean score was 4.3 points. The time of conception
- 30%, or 2,388 people, showed high diet concordance;
- 31.2% of 2,430 participants reported moderate concordance
- 38.2% of participants (or 2,980) had low concordance.
The odds of gestational diabetics were 37% lower if you have a high score than a low one (adjusted OR = 0.63; 95 CI: 0.44-0.9), 28% lower chances of preeclampsia and eclampsia, (aOR = 0.72, 95%CI: 0.55-0.93) and 21% lower chances of APOs (aOR= 0.79, 95%CI; 0.68-0.92).
The researchers did not find any significant differences by race, ethnicity and pre-pregnancy BMI but did note that “associations were stronger among women aged 35 years or older” (aOR = 0.54; 95% CI, 0.34-0.84).
“This multicenter, population-based study validates that a healthier eating pattern is associated with a lower risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, the most exciting being a 28% lower risk for preeclampsia,” Natalie Bello, MD, MPH, According to a press release by the Smidt Heart Institute, Los Angeles, senior author and co-corresponding author of the study, and director of hypertension research, “Importantly, this connection between the Mediterranean diet and lower risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes was seen in a geographically, racially and ethnically diverse population.”
The researchers concluded that “intervention studies are needed to assess whether dietary modification around the time of conception can reduce risk of APOs and their downstream associations with future development of cardiovascular disease risk factors and overt disease.”
“Taken together, our findings demonstrate that in U.S. women, adoption of a Mediterranean diet pattern may represent an important lifestyle approach for the prevention of APOs, particularly in women with advanced maternal age among whom risk for APOs is elevated,” they wrote. “Our findings add to the growing body of evidence demonstrating that the Mediterranean diet pattern may play an important role in preserving the health of women across the lifespan, including during pregnancy.”
References:
Rx Nutrition Resource Center
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