Prepregnancy Healthy Dietary Pattern Is Inversely Associated with Depressive Symptoms among Pregnant Brazilian Women

Dietary patterns before pregnancy may be associated with depressive symptomatology during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to identify dietary patterns before pregnancy and to examine the association between these dietary patterns and depressive symptoms during pregnancy. A prospective cohort of 248 healthy pregnant women were followed at 5-13, 20-26, and 30-36 gestational weeks. Dietary intake was obtained by using a food-frequency questionnaire administered between 5 and 13 gestational weeks, which referred to the 6 mo preceding gestation, and factor analysis (principal components) was applied to identify dietary patterns. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depressive Scale (EPDS) was used to evaluate depressive symptoms during 3 follow-up pregnancy points. A multiple linear mixed-effects model was applied to verify the association between dietary patterns and depressive symptoms adjusted for obstetric factors, socioeconomic status, and energy intake. Three prepregnancy dietary patterns were identified: common-Brazilian, healthy, and processed. Together, these patterns explained 36.1% of the total percentage of variance; the eigenvalues were 2.88, 2.12, and 1.86, respectively. Mean depressive symptom scores were 9.0 (95% Cl: 8.4, 9.6), 7.2 (95% Cl: 6.5, 7.8), and 7.0 (95% Cl: 6.4, 7.7) for trimesters 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The rate of decrease in depressive symptoms was -0.088/wk (95% Cl: -0.115, -0.061; P < 0.001). In the multiple longitudinal linear regression model, the healthy dietary pattern before pregnancy was inversely associated with depressive symptoms (beta:-0.723; 95% Cl: -1.277, -0.169; P = 0.011). High adherence to the healthy pattern before pregnancy was associated with lower EPDS scores during pregnancy in women from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.