Fruit and vegetable consumption before and during pregnancy and developmental delays in offspring aged 2 years in Japan

The association between fruit and vegetable consumption before and during pregnancy and offspring’s physical growth has been well reported, but no study has focused on offspring’s neurological development. We aimed to explore the association between maternal fruit and vegetable consumption before and during pregnancy and developmental delays in their offspring aged 2 years. Between July 2013 and March 2017, 23 406 women were recruited for the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project Birth and Three-Generation Cohort Study. Fruit and vegetable consumption was calculated using FFQ, and offspring’s developmental delays were evaluated by the Ages & Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ-3) for infants aged 2 years. Finally, 10 420 women and 10 543 infants were included in the analysis. Totally, 14·9 % of children had developmental delay when screened using the ASQ-3. Women in the highest quartile of vegetable consumption from pre-pregnancy to early pregnancy and from early to mid-pregnancy had lower odds of offspring’s developmental delays (OR 0·74; 95 % CI 0·63, 0·89 and OR 0·70; 95 % CI 0·59, 0·84, respectively) than women in the lowest quartile. Women in the highest quartile of fruit consumption from early to mid-pregnancy had lower odds of offspring’s developmental delays (OR 0·78; 95 % CI 0·66, 0·92) than women in the lowest quartile. In conclusion, high fruit and vegetable consumption before and during pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of developmental delays in offspring aged 2 years.