Association between Dietary Patterns and Mental Disorders in Pregnant Women in Southern Brazil
Objective: To evaluate the association between dietary patterns and mental disorders in a sample of pregnant women in southern Brazil.
Methods: Cross-sectional study. A total of 712 pregnant women were enrolled in the Food Intake and Eating Behavior in Pregnancy Study (ECCAGe) in primary care services in Southern Brazil. The food intake assessment was performed using the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Dietary patterns were identified by cluster analysis. PRIME-MD instrument (The primary care evaluation of mental disorders) was used to evaluate the mental health of pregnant women. Poisson regression models with robust variance were fitted to estimate prevalence ratios adjusted for socioeconomic, demographic and clinical variables.
Results: Pregnant women who had an insufficient intake of fruits and a high consumption of sweets and sugars presented 42% (PR 1.42, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.96) and 88% (PR 1.88, 95% CI 1.16 - 3.06) a higher prevalence of major depressive disorder, respectively, compared to women with adequate intake or lower risk, adjusting for age, pregestational BMI, city of residence and violence during pregnancy. Women with a common-Brazilian dietary pattern had a higher prevalence of depressive disorder compared to those who presented a varied consumption pattern (PR 1.41, 95% CI 1.00 to 2.00), controlled for city of residence and violence during pregnancy. Finally, women with an insufficient intake of legumes showed a significant association with generalized anxiety (PR 1.39, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.90), adjusting for age and violence during pregnancy.
Conclusions: Adequate consumption of fruits, vegetables and legumes during pregnancy was associated with lower prevalence of mental disorders compared with inadequate intakes. The results reinforce the importance of an adequate dietary intake to ensure better mental health in pregnancy.