Mediterranean Dietary Pattern in Pregnant Women and Offspring Risk of Overweight and Abdominal Obesity in Early Childhood: the INMA Birth Cohort Study

Background: Animal models have suggested that maternal diet quality may reduce offspring obesity risk regardless of maternal body weight; however, evidence from human studies is scarce.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate associations between adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) during pregnancy and childhood overweight and abdominal obesity risk at 4 years of age.

Methods: We analysed 1827 mother-child pairs from the Spanish 'Infancia y Medio Ambiente' cohort study, recruited between 2003 and 2008. Diet was assessed during pregnancy using a food frequency questionnaire and MD adherence by the relative Mediterranean diet score (rMED). Overweight (including obesity) was defined as an age-specific and sex-specific body mass index ≥85th percentile (World Health Organization referent), and abdominal obesity as a waist circumference (WC) >90th percentile. Multivariate adjusted linear and logistic regression models were used to evaluate associations between pregnancy rMED and offspring overweight and abdominal obesity.

Result: There was no association between rMED and body mass index z-score, whereas there was a significant association between higher adherence to MD and lower WC (β of high vs. low rMED: -0.62 cm; 95% confidence interval: -1.10, -0.14 cm, P for trend = 0.009).

Conclusion: Pregnancy adherence to the MD was not associated with childhood overweight risk, but it was associated with lower WC, a marker of abdominal obesity.