Can a Simple Dietary Screening in Early Pregnancy Identify Dietary Habits Associated with Gestational Diabetes?

• Published in: Nutrients
• Main Authors: Hrolfsdottir, Laufey, Gunnarsdottir, Ingibjorg, Birgisdottir, Bryndis Eva, Hreidarsdottir, Ingibjorg Th, Smarason, Alexander Kr, Hardardottir, Hildur, Halldorsson, Thorhallur I
• Other Authors: 1 Unit for Nutrition Research, Landspitali University Hospital and Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Iceland, Eiríksgata 29 101 Reykjavik, Iceland. [e-mail]. 2 Institution of Health Science Research, University of Akureyri and Akureyri Hospital, Eyrarlandsvegi, 600 Akureyri, Iceland. [e-mail]. 3 Unit for Nutrition Research, Landspitali University Hospital and Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Iceland, Eiríksgata 29 101 Reykjavik, Iceland. 4 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Landspitali University Hospital, Hringbraut, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland. 5 Institution of Health Science Research, University of Akureyri and Akureyri Hospital, Eyrarlandsvegi, 600 Akureyri, Iceland. 6 Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Vatnsmýrarvegi 16, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland. 7 Centre for Fetal Programming, Department of Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institut, Artillerivej 5, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI Publishing 2019
• Subjects: dietary habits; dietary screening; food frequency questionnaire; gestational diabetes; maternal nutrition; Sykursýki; Meðganga; Spurningalistar; Diabetes; Gestational; Feeding Behavior; Surveys and Questionnaires; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/621089; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081868

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Download Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is predominantly a lifestyle disease, with diet being an important modifiable risk factor. A major obstacle for the prevention in clinical practice is the complexity of assessing diet. In a cohort of 1651 Icelandic women, this study examined whether a short 40-item dietary screening questionnaire administered in the 1st trimester could identify dietary habits associated with GDM. The dietary variables were aggregated into predefined binary factors reflecting inadequate or optimal intake and stepwise backward elimination was used to identify a reduced set of factors that best predicted GDM. Those binary factors were then aggregated into a risk score (range: 0-7), that was mostly characterised by frequent consumption of soft drinks, sweets, cookies, ice creams and processed meat. The women with poor dietary habits (score ≥ 5, n = 302), had a higher risk of GDM (RR = 1.38; 95%CI = 3, 85) compared with women with a more optimal diet (score ≤ 2, n = 407). In parallel, a pilot (n = 100) intervention was conducted among overweight and obese women examining the effect of internet-based personalized feedback on diet quality. Simple feedback was given in accordance with the answers provided in the screening questionnaire in 1st trimester. At the endpoint, the improvements in diet quality were observed by, as an example, soft drink consumption being reduced by ~1 L/week on average in the intervention group compared to the controls. Our results suggest that a simple dietary screening tool administered in the 1st trimester could identify dietary habits associated with GMD. This tool should be easy to use in a clinical setting, and with simple individualized feedback, improvements in diet may be achieved. University of Iceland Technology Development Fund Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNIS)