Pre-Pregnancy Diet Quality and Its Association with Offspring Behavioral Problems

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between pre-pregnancy diet quality and offspring behavioral problems among children aged 5–12 years. METHODS: 1554 mother-child dyads with mothers from the Australian longitudinal study on women's health (ALSWH) and children from the mothers and their children's health Study (MatCH). The healthy eating index (HEI-2015) score was used to explore maternal diet quality before pregnancy. Childhood total behavioral difficulties, internalizing (emotional and peer) and externalizing problems (hyperactivity and conduct) were assessed using the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ). Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association between maternal diet quality and offspring behavioral problems. RESULTS: 211 children experienced a greater score on total behavioral difficulties (13.6%) among the 1554 children. Better pre-pregnancy diet quality was associated with lower odds of offspring total behavioral difficulties after adjustment for potential confounders, highest vs lowest tertile (AOR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.32, 0.85) at P = 0.009. Greater adherence to the HEI-2015 score before pregnancy was also inversely associated with odds of offspring externalizing problems (AOR = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.43, 0.94). Among the four subscales, hyperactivity and peer problems were negatively associated with better diet quality, (AOR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.47, 0.96) and (AOR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.42, 0.96), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We found that mothers who recorded the better quality of diets before pregnancy had children with a lower risk of behavioral disorders in childhood. Further well-powered prospective studies are warranted to confirm the findings. FUNDING SOURCES: The research on which this paper is based was conducted as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health by the University of Queensland and The University of Newcastle. We are grateful to the Australian Government Department of Health for funding and to the women who provided the survey data. ...