Prepregnancy plant-based diets and risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Background

Plant-based diets have been associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in nonpregnant adults, but specific evidence for their effects on risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy is scarce.

Objective

This study aimed to evaluate the prospective association between adherence to plant-based diets before pregnancy and the risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. We hypothesized that women with higher adherence to plant-based diets would have a lower risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Study Design

We followed 11,459 parous women (16,780 singleton pregnancies) without chronic diseases, a history of preeclampsia, and cancers who participated in the Nurses' Health Study II (1991–2009), which was a prospective cohort study. Diet was assessed every 4 years using a validated food frequency questionnaire from which we calculated the plant-based diet index (higher score indicates higher adherence) to evaluate the health associations of plant-based diets among participants while accounting for the quality of plant-based foods. Participants self-reported hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including preeclampsia and gestational hypertension. We estimated the relative risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in relation to plant-based diet index adherence in quintiles using generalized estimating equations log-binomial regression while adjusting for potential confounders and accounting for repeated pregnancies for the same woman.

Results

The mean (standard deviation) age at first in-study pregnancy was 35 (4) years. A total of 1033 cases of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including 482 cases of preeclampsia (2.9%) and 551 cases of gestational hypertension (3.3%) were reported. Women in the highest quintile of plant-based diet index were significantly associated with a lower risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy than women in the lowest quintile (relative risk, 0.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.62–0.93). There was an inverse dose-response relationship between plant-based diet index and risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. The multivariable-adjusted relative risk (95% confidence interval) of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy for women in increasing quintiles of plant-based diet index were 1 (ref), 0.93 (0.78–1.12), 0.86 (0.72–1.03), 0.84 (0.69–1.03), and 0.76 (0.62–0.93) with a significant linear trend across quintiles (P trend=.005). This association was slightly stronger for gestational hypertension (relative risk, 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.60–0.99) than for preeclampsia (relative risk, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.61–1.04). Mediation analysis suggested that body mass index evaluation for dietary assessment and pregnancy explained 39% (95% confidence interval, 15%–70%]) of the relation between plant-based diet index and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and 48% (95% confidence interval, 12%–86%]) of the relation between plant-based diet index and gestational hypertension.

Conclusion

Higher adherence to plant-based diets was associated with a lower risk of developing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Much of the benefit seems to be related to improved weight control.