Mediterranean-style diet may reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes for Black, Hispanic women
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Key takeaways:
- A cohort of primarily Black and Hispanic women with higher Mediterranean-style diet scores was less likely to have any adverse pregnancy outcomes.
- The findings extended to women with overweight or obesity.
CHICAGO — Black and Hispanic women who adhered to components of a Mediterranean-style diet were less likely to experience any adverse pregnancy outcome, regardless of overweight or obesity status, researchers reported.
Data show a Mediterranean-style diet is associated with a lower risk for CVD; however, it remains unclear whether adhering to the eating plan during pregnancy can improve outcomes for people from underrepresented backgrounds or those who have overweight or obesity, Linh T.M. Tran, MD, a medical resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said during a presentation at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.
“As a practicing cardiologist and women’s health researcher, it is clear that we do not have a lot of data on what we can do to reduce women developing adverse pregnancy outcomes — including preeclampsia and gestational diabetes — which not only carry risk for the mother and baby during pregnancy but also increase CV risk long term for the mother,” Anum Minhas, MD, MHS, assistant professor of medicine, director of cardio-obstetrics and associate program director for cardiology fellowship at Johns Hopkins, told Healio. “The American Heart Association recommends following a healthy diet and aiming for 150 minutes of exercise. Whether those lifestyle interventions could provide benefit in pregnancy and, in particular, reducing risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes, many of which occur in women who have obesity, diabetes or hypertension, is to be determined. We were particularly interested in looking at what the benefit would be in pregnancy for Mediterranean-style diet. Could this lower risk for women?”
Researchers analyzed data from 8,511 women from the Boston Birth Cohort (1998-2016), which recruited pregnant women from Boston Medical Center, the largest safety net hospital in Boston (47% Black; 28% Hispanic; mean age, 28 years). Among the 51% of participants with prepregnancy overweight or obesity, 25% of Black women and 12% of Hispanic women developed any adverse pregnancy outcome. Researchers assessed individual Mediterranean-style diet scores based on maternal diet intake during pregnancy via food frequency questionnaire interviews, conducted 24 to 72 hours postpartum.
“The Boston Birth Cohort is a high-risk cohort that oversamples women with adverse pregnancy outcomes like preterm birth and low birth weight, which is still ongoing,” Tran told Healio. “This is a very diverse, urban cohort of women from underserved populations, predominantly non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women.”
Researchers found that a 1 standard deviation increase in Mediterranean-style diet score was inversely associated with a reduced risk for any adverse pregnancy outcome (adjusted OR = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.82-0.9), as well as lower risk for preeclampsia, eclampsia, or hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelets (HELLP) syndrome (aOR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.82-0.97), gestational diabetes (aOR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.81-0.95), preterm birth (aOR = 0.9; 95% CI, 0.86-0.95) and low birth weight (aOR = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.83-0.92).
In subgroup analyses, higher adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet was associated with lower odds for developing preeclampsia or eclampsia or HELLP syndrome, low birth weight and preterm birth in Black women with or without overweight or obesity. The benefit of adhering to a Mediterranean-style diet was also observed for gestational diabetes among Hispanic women with overweight or obesity.
“These findings are very encouraging,” Tran told Healio. “We see that although adverse pregnancy outcomes is a heterogeneous group of disorders, the diet benefited all women in composite and individual outcomes, specifically women in the highest tertile of the diet score.”
Dietary intervention can mean different things for different people, Minhas said, adding that it is important for clinicians to counsel pregnant patients to incorporate healthy foods into their diet, however they can.
“For some people, a Mediterranean-style diet could include more leafy greens; for others, it might mean adding healthier fats such as fish, olive oil or nuts,” Minhas told Healio. In my conversations with patients, I always recommend that, as much as they can, try to adhere to a healthy lifestyle with a healthy diet. You can call it a Mediterranean-style diet, but that journey of getting there is very different for everyone one. Even small changes, like cutting sugar, would be a great step for some people.”
For more information:
Anum Minhas, MD, MHS, can be reached at aminhas2@jhmi.edu.
Linh T.M. Tran, MD, can be reached at ltran18@jh.edu.
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Tran LTM, et al. Abstract MDP392. Presented at: American Heart Association Scientific Sessions; Nov. 16-18, 2024; Chicago.
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