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Higher diet quality reduces risks of neural tube defects and orofacial clefts
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Oct 03 2011
Source: Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 166(2):121-126. -
Alternative Title:Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med
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Description:Objective
To examine whether better maternal diet quality was associated with reduced risk for selected birth defects.
Design
A multi-center, population-based case-control study, the National Birth Defects Prevention Study.
Setting
Ten participating centers in the United States.
Patients/Participants
Eligible subjects’ estimated due dates were from October, 1997 through December, 2005. Telephone interviews were conducted with 72% of case and 67% of control mothers. Analyses included 936 cases with neural tube defects (NTDs), 2,475 with orofacial clefts, and 6,147 non-malformed controls.
Main exposures
Food-frequency data were used to calculate the Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and Diet Quality Index (DQI), modeled after existing indices.
Main outcome measures
Adjusted odds ratios.
Results
After covariate adjustment, increasing diet quality based on either index was associated with reduced risks for the birth defects studied. The strongest association was between anencephaly and DQI; the odds ratio (OR) for highest versus lowest quartile was 0.49 (95% CI 0.31, 0.75). ORs for cleft lip+/−cleft palate and cleft palate and DQI were also notable, with ORs = 0.66 (0.54, 0.81) and 0.74 (0.56, 0.96), respectively.
Conclusions
Healthier maternal dietary patterns, as measured by diet quality scores, were associated with reduced risks of NTDs and clefts. These results suggest that dietary approaches could lead to further reduction in risks of major birth defects and complement existing efforts to fortify foods and encourage periconceptional multivitamin use.
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Subject:
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Pubmed ID:21969361
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC3973484
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[PDF-50.58 KB]
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