RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Lower rate of selected congenital heart defects with better maternal diet quality: a population-based study
JF Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
JO Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
SP 43
OP 49
DO 10.1136/archdischild-2014-308013
VO 101
IS 1
A1 Lorenzo D Botto
A1 Sergey Krikov
A1 Suzan L Carmichael
A1 Ronald G Munger
A1 Gary M Shaw
A1 Marcia L Feldkamp
YR 2016
UL http://fn.bmj.com/content/101/1/43.abstract
AB Objective To evaluate whether better diet quality in mothers is associated with lower risk for major non-syndromic congenital heart defects in their children.Design Multicentre population-based case–control study, the National Birth Defects Prevention Study.Setting Ten sites in the USA.Participants Mothers of babies with major non-syndromic congenital heart defects (n=9885) and mothers with unaffected babies (n=9468) with estimated date of delivery from 1997 to 2009.Main outcome measures Adjusted ORs for specific major congenital heart defects by quartiles of maternal diet quality in the year before pregnancy, assessed by the Diet Quality Index for pregnancy (DQI-P) and the Mediterranean Diet Score. Quartile 1 (Q1) reflecting the worst diet quality and Q4 the best diet quality.Results Better diet quality was associated with reduced risk for some conotruncal and atrial septal heart defects. For DQI-P, estimated risks reductions (Q4 vs Q1) for conotruncal defects were 37% for tetralogy of Fallot (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.80) and 24% overall (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.91); and for septal defects, 23% for atrial septal defects (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.94) and 14% overall (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.75 to 1.00). Risk reductions were weaker or minimal for most other major congenital heart defects.Conclusions Better diet quality is associated with a reduced occurrence of some conotruncal and septal heart defects. This finding suggests that a reduction in certain cardiac malformations may be an additional benefit of improved maternal diet quality, reinforcing current preconception care recommendations.