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Topical Area: Maternal, Perinatal and Pediatric Nutrition

Maternal, Perinatal and Pediatric Nutrition (I) (Poster Session)

(P07-043-23) Associations Between Prenatal Inflammatory Diet and Metabolic Health Characteristics at Midlife in Females

Saturday, July 22, 2023
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET
Location: Poster Board 167

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Amy R. Nichols, PhD, MS, RD

    Postdoctoral Fellow
    Harvard Medical School & Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • SR

    Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, MPH

    Harvard Medical School & Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • MH

    Marie-France Hivert, MD

    Harvard Medical School & Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • Jorge E. Chavarro, MD, PhD

    Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • EO

    Emily Oken, MD, MPH

    Professor
    Harvard Medical School & Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Disclosure(s):
Amy R. Nichols, PhD, MS, RD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: Chronic inflammation is a key factor in metabolic conditions across the lifecourse, and diet contributes via pro-inflammatory dietary components. Pregnancy is a critical period of nutrition programming for offspring health; however, evidence related to prenatal diet and later maternal health is limited. We estimated associations of pro-inflammatory prenatal diet with midlife metabolic health characteristics including adiposity, body composition, and inflammatory markers.

Methods: From 1999-2002, pregnant participants enrolled in Project Viva completed food frequency questionnaires after the 1st and 2nd trimesters from which we derived mean dietary inflammatory index (DII) z-scores (higher = more proinflammatory). At ~18y postpartum (midlife visit mean age 51y), we measured weight change (midlife – prepregnancy, n=656), body composition (dual X-ray absorptiometry/DXA, n=473), and plasma inflammatory markers (leptin, interleukin-6/IL-6, and c-reactive protein/CRP, n=481). We used multivariable linear regression models to examine associations of DII and midlife outcomes adjusted for enrollment age, race and ethnicity, education, parity, income, smoking, and continuous prepregnancy BMI.

Results: At midlife, mean (±SD) prepregnancy BMI was 24.5kg/m2 (5.0) and prenatal DII -2.6 units (1.4). We observed associations of DII with weight change (β= +0.75kg per DII unit increase, 95%CI 0.22, 1.28), trunk fat (β= 0.33kg, 95%CI 0.03, 0.63), total fat% (β= 0.57%, 95%CI 0.22, 0.92), but not lean mass or inflammatory markers. When stratified by prepregnancy BMI, DII was associated with higher weight change (β= +0.82, 95%CI 0.26, 1.37), trunk fat (β= 0.43kg, 95%CI 0.10, 0.76), total fat% (β= 0.67%, 95%CI 0.19, 1.16), leptin (β= 1.60ng/mL, 95%CI 0.37, 2.83), and IL-6 (β= 0.67pg/mL, 95%CI 0.07, 1.27) only among those with prepregnancy BMI < 25kg/m2. No associations were detected with lean mass or CRP, or among participants with BMI ≥25.0kg/m2.

Conclusions: For those with a healthy BMI, an inflammatory prenatal diet was associated with higher midlife adiposity, leptin, and IL-6. Pregnancy is a critical nutrition period that may present a unique opportunity for prevention of chronic conditions. Future efforts would benefit from examining prenatal vs non-prenatal diet in relation to midlife outcomes.

Funding Sources: NICHD, NIA