Vegetable dietary pattern associated with low risk of preeclampsia possibly through reducing proteinuria

Abstract Background Evidence on the potential roles that dietary patterns play in the risk of preeclampsia remains limited. Objective To examine the associations between dietary patterns during pregnancy and the risk of preeclampsia. Study Design We analyzed data from a cluster randomized controlled trial among 987 healthy pregnant women in three rural counties in northwestern China. Maternal diet during the whole pregnancy was assessed using a 107-item food frequency questionnaire with proportion size administered before delivery. Principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify common dietary patterns. Preeclampsia was diagnosed by trained clinicians and recorded in delivery records. Results Nineteen participants (1.9%) were diagnosed with preeclampsia. Gestational hypertension and proteinuria were only weakly correlated with each other (Kappa = 0.06): 10.7% participants with gestational hypertension only, 8.8% with proteinuria only, 1.9% with both, and 78.6% with neither. Five common dietary patterns were identified: vegetable, meat, fruit, snack, and wheat staple patterns. After adjusting for calories, other dietary pattern scores and baseline blood pressure, a higher vegetable pattern scores was associated with lower risk of preeclampsia (P for trend = 0.041; the highest vs lowest quartile, adjusted relative risk = 0.20 [95% confidence interval, 0.04–0.98]). A similar association was also observed for the risk of proteinuria (P for trend = 0.015): the highest vs lowest quartiles of the vegetable pattern score, adjusted relative risk = 0.44 (95% confidence interval, 0.24–0.80). The other four pattern scores were not associated with preeclampsia. Conclusions Adherence to vegetable dietary pattern may be associated with the lower risk of preeclampsia, possibly through reducing development of proteinuria. The original full study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02537392.