(LB03-25-24) Associations of Dietary Quality and Inflammatory Potential With Risk of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the associations of diet quality and inflammatory potential with the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and glycolipid metabolism in Chinese pregnant women.

Methods: A total of 523 eligible pregnant women, including 160 GDM and 363 non-GDM women, were included in this case-control study. Dietary assessment was conducted with a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire during the 24^th -28^th gestational weeks, and dietary pattern was measured with the Diet Balance Index for Pregnancy (DBI-P) and the energy-adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (E-DII). Fasting blood glucose and lipid profile were assayed by a automatic biochemical analyzer.

Results: Compared to the non-GDM group, the GDM group consumed less cereals (P=0.031). Positive associations between excessive food intakes evaluated by high bound score (HBS) of DBI-P and GDM were found in the women with normal pre-pregnancy BMI (OR: 1.223; 95% CI: 1.042, 1.434; P=0.014), and the women with one pregnancy (OR: 1.334; 95% CI: 1.066, 1.670; P=0.012) and ≥3 pregnancies (OR: 1.191; 95%CI: 1.011, 1.402; P=0.036). Inadequate food intake evaluated by low bound score (LBS) of DBI-P were positively associated with GDM in multipara women (P_trend =0.049). Imbalanced intakes evaluated by diet quality distance (DQD) of DBI-P was positively associated with GDM in women with normal pre-pregnancy BMI (OR: 1.062; 95%CI: 1.002, 1.127; P= 0.044), and in pregnant women with ≥3 pregnancies (OR: 1.079; 95%CI: 1.002, 1.162; P=0.044). In addition, LBS, DQD and E-DII scores were all positively correlated with worse pre and postprandial glucose and cholesterol levels (all P < 0.05).

Conclusions: DBI-P was positively associated with GDM risk among those Chinese women with normal pre-pregnancy BMI and parity history. Both DBI-P and E-DII showed positive correlations with poor glycolipid levels. Combining both DBI-P and E-DII could identify valuable evidence of the overall diet quality during pregnancy.

Funding Sources: This work was jointly funded by the University-level project of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2019LK042), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81501338), the 2021 Research Enhancement Program, the 2022 Multidisciplinary Internal Research Grant, and THRC/CHERR Faculty Fellowship Funding at Texas State University.