Maternal Prenatal Dietary Glucose Intake Independently Predicts Negative Affect in Six-Month-Olds: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

• In Event: Metabolic State and Nutrition during Pregnancy: Mechanisms and Moderators of Effects on Offspring Health and Development

Abstract

The dietary glycemic index (GI) is a measure of the rate of plasma glucose generation from food consumption, with higher GI foods leading to rapid increases in blood sugar. While prenatal consumption of high-GI foods has been linked to offspring risk for obesity and metabolic disorders (Wahab et al, 2021), the impact of prenatal dietary GI on infant neurodevelopment is yet unclear. While other work suggests that maternal prenatal diets characterized by high glycemic load is associated with offspring externalizing and internalizing behavior (Alick et al, 2021), the independent effects of high GI foods and infant neurodevelopment have not been examined in the context of maternal pre-gravid and gravid maternal body composition and circulating glucose concentrations. Determining the effects of a maternal prenatal diet composed of high-GI foods on infant independent of other factors associated with high blood glucose may provide important insight into potential intervention targets for improving offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes. To this end, we examined the independent effects of maternal prenatal dietary GI, plasma glucose concentrations, adiposity during pregnancy, and pre-gravid body mass index (BMI) on infant negative affect in 302 mother-infant dyads. During the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy, participants completed six 24-hour dietary recalls (3/trimester) conducted by trained nutritionists (Conway et al., 2003). Adiposity was assessed during the 3rd trimester via air displacement plethysmography (Marshall et al., 2016). Pre-gravid BMI and fasting plasma glucose values from were extracted from medical records. Infant temperament was evaluated when infants were six months old using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003). Given the relationship between maternal mood and infant negative emotions (Bridgett et al., 2009), maternal mood was also assessed at six months post-partum using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977). Results from structural equation models accounting for the interdependence of dietary GI, pre-gravid BMI, 3rd trimester adiposity and fasting glucose concentrations during pregnancy, as well as maternal mood at six-months post-partum, showed that higher dietary GI during pregnancy predicted higher infant sadness at six months (β=.14, p=.02; see Figure 1). Higher dietary GI during pregnancy also predicted higher distress to limitations (β=.11, p=.05). There was a trending relationship between higher dietary GI during pregnancy and lower falling reactivity (β=.11, p=.09). Fasting plasma glucose also predicted infant distress to limitations at six months (β=.23, p=.001). Consistent with earlier work, maternal CES-D was associated with higher infant negative affect (β=.25, p=.0001), distress to limitations (β=.15, p=.004), sadness (β=.13, p=.02), lower falling reactivity (β=-.28, p=.0001), and higher fear (β=.11, p=.05). Interestingly, there were no other significant relationships between maternal pre-gravid BMI, adiposity, and metabolic measures and infant negative affect or its subscales. These results suggest that interventions aimed at reducing prenatal dietary intake of high-GI foods may result in improved infant neurodevelopmental outcomes. Taken together, these findings are an important step toward elucidating the relationship between prenatal maternal nutritional quality and infant neurodevelopment.

Authors

• Elizabeth Katherine Wood, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)
  Presenting Author

• Hanna C Gustafsson, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)

• Joel T Nigg, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)

• Elinor L. Sullivan, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)