BACKGROUND

Gestational weight gain (GWG) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), as two major adverse pregnancy outcomes, could be affected by diet patterns, and GWG also influenced GDM. Therefore, we aimed to explore the four diet quality scores and two adverse pregnancy outcomes in a more macroscopic way.

METHODS

667 women for GWG part and 333 women for GDM part who were pregnant from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), aged 20 to 44 years, were involved in this study, respectively. Four diet quality scores including dietary inflammatory index (DII), dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015), and Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI-2010) were chosen in this study.

RESULTS

We found that higher HEI-2015 and AHEI-2010 were associated with lower risk of GWG, especially for advanced maternal age. Lower DII and higher DASH were associated with lower risk of GDM. These associations were robust after excluding the diabetic patients. For pregnant women with GWG, DASH was negatively associated with the risk of GDM. Summarily, adherence of healthy dietary pattern associated with decreased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

CONCLUSION

Adherence of healthy dietary pattern associated with decreased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. We recommend that pregnant women take dietary precautions with foods consisting of fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, whole grains, and legumes.