Dietary patterns and gestational diabetes mellitus in a low income pregnant women population in Brazil - a cohort study

Our aim is to verify the association between dietary patterns during early pregnancy and development of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in a low income Brazilian population. A cohort study followed 841 healthy pregnant women from the 15-20th gestational week until delivery. This study was conducted at the Instituto de Medicina Integral Prof. Fernando Figueira, Brazil. 838 pregnant women during the first half of a healthy pregnancy with a monthly family income below US $ 500.00 were selected. 95 (11.3%) pregnant women developed gestational diabetes mellitus. Three dietary patterns from factor analysis were extracted. The traditional pattern was characterized by dairy products, fruits, vegetable and fish. The mixed pattern included fried food, pizza, juice, manioc flour, red meat and candies. The western pattern was characterized by eggs, white bread, cookies, pasta, pizza, fried food, chicken, candies, chocolate, salty snacks and soft drinks. There were no differences among GDM incidence according to these three dietary patterns. This finding remained after adjustment for maternal age, maternal education, body mass index pre-pregnancy and parity. We concluded that eating patterns studied during early pregnancy were not associated to the development of GDM in this sample of Brazilian pregnant women with low income.