Maternal dietary diversity and nutritional adequacy in relation with anthropometric measurements of newborns at birth: a cohort study in Tehran city

BACKGROUND: Maternal dietary intake during pregnancy plays an important role in fetal development and birth outcomes. The aim of the present study was to determine maternal dietary diversity and Nutritional adequacy in relation with anthropometric measurements of newborn at birth as a cohort study in Tehran city. METHODS: This prospective cohort study, was conducted by participation of 585 pregnant women referred to public health centers and hospitals covered by Shahid Beheshti, Tehran and Iran Universities in Tehran City. Using face-to-face interviews, general characteristics were obtained by questionnaire. Pre-pregnancy dietary intake was measured by a 168-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire at the first visit, and dietary intake during pregnancy was measured by 2 non-consecutive 24-h food recall (one holiday and one regular day) at 31–34 weeks. Maternal height and weight were measured using standard tools and protocol at the first visit, and maternal weight at the end of pregnancy and data related to neonatal anthropometric indices were collected from mothers and neonates health records in the Sib electrical system. By applying SPSS software (version 23) the association was analyzed by linear regression with adjusting for confounding factors. P-value< 0.05 was considered as significant. RESULTS: Mean ± standard deviation of body mass index (BMI) of pre-pregnancy, pregnancy weight gain, BMI for age z-score (BAZ) at birth of infants were 24.52 ± 4.12, 12.16 ± 6.85 kg and − 0.61 ± 1.48, respectively. Mean ± SD of the Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) and Mean Adequacy Ratio (MAR) before and during pregnancy were 5.31 ± 1.11, vs.5.23 ± 1.42 and 289.85 ± 113.12 vs. 371.07 ± 197.28, respectively. After adjusting for confounding factors DDS in the third trimester of pregnancy was inversely correlated with WAZ (B = -0.16, 95% CI = - 0.23_0.30) and BAZ (B = − 0.24, 95% CI = - 0.06_0. 42) at birth, MAR of pre-pregnancy (B = − 0.001, 95% CI = - 0.002_0.00) and in the third trimester of pregnancy (B = − 0.18, 95% CI = - 0.35_0.004) were negatively associated with WAZ at birth. CONCLUSION: The findings showed that maternal nutritional status (dietary diversity and nutritional adequacy) before and during pregnancy were correlated with neonatal anthropometric indices at birth.