Maternal dietary intake of vitamin A during pregnancy was inversely associated with congenital diaphragmatic hernia: the Japan Environment and Children’s Study

The pathogenesis of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is largely unknown; however, vitamin A seems to play a role in diaphragmatic development. Previous case-control studies reported that maternal dietary vitamin A intake was inversely associated with the risk of CDH. To our knowledge, however, there is no prospective evidence regarding this association. Our aim was to examine whether maternal intake of vitamin A was associated with CDH occurrence. Baseline data, from the Japan nationwide birth cohort study (2011-2014) of 89 658 mothers (mean age at delivery = 31.2 years) who delivered singleton live births, were analysed. We assessed dietary habits using an FFQ focused on the first trimester and estimated the daily intake of total vitamin A (retinol activity equivalents), retinol, provitamin A carotenoids and vegetables. The occurrence of CDH was ascertained from medical records. A total of forty cases of CDH were documented. The adjusted OR of CDH occurrence for the high total vitamin A intake category (median = 468 mug/d) was 0.6 (95 % CI 0.3, 1.2) with reference to the low intake category (230 mug/d). When we restricted to mothers with a prepregnancy BMI of 18.5-24.9 kg/m2, vitamin A intake was inversely associated with the risk of their children being born with CDH (OR 0.5, 95 % CI 0.2, 1.0). Even given the limited number of cases in the study, our findings provide additional evidence to link vitamin A with CDH.