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, Hreiðarsdóttir, Ingibjörg Th., Smárason, Alexander, Hardardottir, Hildur, Halldorsson, Thorhallur
• Other Authors: Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition (UI), Matvæla- og næringarfræðideild (HÍ), Læknadeild (HÍ), Faculty of Medicine (UI), Heilbrigðisvísindastofnun Háskólans á Akureyri (HA), Institute of Health Science Research (UA), Heilbrigðisvísindasvið (HÍ), School of Health Sciences (UI), Heilbrigðisvísindasvið (HA), School of Health Sciences (UA), Háskóli Íslands, University of Iceland, University of Akureyri, Háskólinn á Akureyri
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019
• Subjects: Dietary habits; Dietary screening; Food frequency questionnaire; Gestational diabetes; Maternal nutrition; Mataræði; Sykursýki; Meðganga; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/1658; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081868

Publisher's version (útgefin grein) 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. This research was funded by the Doctoral Grants of the University of Iceland Research Fund, The Technology Development Fund, The Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNIS) and the University of Iceland Research Fund. Peer Reviewed