Infant Adiposity is Independently Associated with a Maternal High Fat Diet but not Related to Niacin Intake: The Healthy Start Study.
Objectives Over-nutrition during pregnancy resulting from maternal obesity or an unhealthy diet can lead to excess infant adiposity at birth. Specific dietary macro- and micronutrients have been shown to increase fat cell development in both in-vitro and in-vivo models and may therefore link maternal diet to increased infant adiposity. We hypothesized that high maternal dietary niacin intake during pregnancy, especially in combination with a high-fat diet (HFD) would increase infant adiposity. Methods We included 1040 participants from a pre-birth cohort of mother-infant pairs. Maternal diet was assessed using multiple 24-hour dietary recalls. HFD was defined as ≥30% of calories from fat and ≥12% of fat calories from saturated fat. Neonatal body composition (% fat mass [%FM], fat mass [FM], fat-free mass [FFM]) was measured by PEAPOD. We used multivariate regression to assess the joint effect of maternal dietary niacin and maternal HFD on neonatal body composition. Results Dietary niacin was not associated with neonatal body composition, and maternal HFD did not modify this finding. However, maternal HFD was independently associated with %FM (β = 0.8 [0.1, 1.4]%, p < 0.01] and FM (β = 32.4 [6.7, 58.0] g, p < 0.01). Conclusions for Practice Our results suggest that a HFD during pregnancy may increase infant adiposity, therefore supporting the need for improved diet counseling of pregnant women at both the clinical and community levels.
Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH), University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Campus Box B426, 13001 E. 17th Place Aurora, Denver, CO, USA. allison.shapiro@ucdenver.edu.
Allison L B
ALB
Shapiro
Department of Biostatistics, CSPH, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver, CO, USA.
Brandy M
BM
Ringham
Department of Biostatistics, CSPH, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver, CO, USA.
Deborah H
DH
Glueck
Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH), University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Campus Box B426, 13001 E. 17th Place Aurora, Denver, CO, USA.
Jill M
JM
Norris
Departments of Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA.
Linda A
LA
Barbour
Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA.
Jacob E
JE
Friedman
Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH), University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Campus Box B426, 13001 E. 17th Place Aurora, Denver, CO, USA.
Dana
D
Dabelea
D050154:Adiposity; D001823:Body Composition; D004034:Diet Surveys; D059305:Diet, High-Fat; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D039382:Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D009035:Mothers; D009525:Niacin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D011247:Pregnancy; D039401:Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
D009525:Niacin
Dietary niacin; High-fat diet; Infant adiposity.