MedWire News: High intake of eggs or cholesterol before or during the first trimester of pregnancy increases the risk for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), show findings from two US studies.
Chunfang Qiu (Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA) and colleagues found that risk for GDM increased significantly with increasing egg intake in the Omega Study, ranging from negligible risk (adjusted relative risk [ARR]=1.01) associated with the consumption of 2-3 eggs per week to significantly increased risk (ARR=2.52) linked to the consumption of 10 or more eggs/week. Similar results were seen in the Alpha Study.
When the researchers used a cut-off consumption of 7 eggs per week or more, women in the Omega Study and the Alpha Study had a significant 1.77- and 2.65-fold increased risk for GDM, respectively, compared with women who ate less than 7 eggs per week.
In a similar fashion, dietary cholesterol intake was positively associated with risk for GDM, in that women in the highest quartile for cholesterol intake in the Omega Study and the Alpha Study were 2.30- and 2.94 times, respectively, more likely to develop GDM than women in the lowest quartile.
The Omega Study, a prospective cohort study examining dietary risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes, took place between 1996 and 2008 and included 3158 participants, with an incidence of GDM of 5.0%. The women completed food frequency questionnaires regarding dietary intake during the 3 months before pregnancy and in the first trimester of pregnancy.
The case-control Alpha Study included 185 women with GDM and 411 controls, and took place between 1998 and 2002. It primarily assessed the epidemiology of pre-eclampsia. Dietary intake was assessed after birth in the same way as for the Omega Study.
"Our data suggest that higher egg and cholesterol consumption during the preconceptional and early pregnancy periods are associated with increased gestational diabetes risk among women without preexisting diabetes," write Qiu et al.
"Confirmation of these findings in other populations and further exploration of possible underlying biologic mechanisms for the observed associations are warranted," they conclude in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2011
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