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Associations Between Maternal Nutrition in Pregnancy and Child Blood Pressure at 4–6 Years: A Prospective Study in a Community-Based Pregnancy Cohort
Published Web Location
https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxaa395Abstract
Background
The intrauterine environment may influence offspring blood pressure, with effects possibly extending into adulthood. The associations between prenatal nutrition and offspring blood pressure, alone or in combination with other sociodemographic or behavioral factors, are unclear.Objectives
To investigate the associations of maternal dietary patterns and plasma folate concentrations with blood pressure in children aged 4-6 years, and assess the potential effect modifications by child sex, maternal race, pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity, maternal smoking, and breastfeeding.Methods
Participants were 846 mother-child dyads from the Conditions Affecting Neurocognitive Development and Learning in Early Childhood (CANDLE) study. Maternal nutrition was characterized by the Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI) scores and plasma folate concentrations in pregnancy. We calculated the systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure percentiles, incorporating sex, age, and height, and categorized children as either having high blood pressure (HBP; ≥90th percentile) or normal blood pressure. Linear regressions were performed to quantify the associations between maternal nutrition and continuous blood pressure percentiles, and Poisson regressions were used to estimate the incidence rate ratio (IRR) of binary HBP. We examined the effect modifications using interaction models.Results
Mean HEI scores and folate concentrations were 60.0 (SD, 11.3) and 23.1 ng/mL (SD, 11.1), respectively. Based on measurements at 1 visit, 29.6% of the children were defined as having HBP. Maternal HEI scores and plasma folate concentrations were not associated with child blood pressure percentiles or HBP in the full cohort. Among mothers self-identified as white, there was an inverse relationship between maternal HEI score and child SBP percentile (β, -0.40; 95%CI: -0.75 to -0.06). A maternal HEI score above 59 was associated with a reduced risk of HBP in girls (IRR, 0.53; 95% CI: 0.32-0.88). No modified associations by pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity, maternal smoking, or breastfeeding were indicated.Conclusions
We found little evidence for effects of maternal nutrition during pregnancy on childhood blood pressure, but detected sex- and race-specific associations. The study contributes to the evolving scientific inquiry regarding developmental origins of disease.Many UC-authored scholarly publications are freely available on this site because of the UC's open access policies. Let us know how this access is important for you.
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