Major dietary patterns in relation to preeclampsia among Iranian pregnant women: a case–control study

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy disorder that increases the risk of prenatal and mater-
nal complications. Therefore, prevention of preeclampsia requires identifying its preventable risk
factors such as dietary patterns.
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the major dietary patterns
and preeclampsia.
Study design: In this case–control study, the dietary patterns of a total of 510 pregnant women
were investigated. Data on their dietary intake, sociodemographics, and daily physical activity
levels were collected using a 198 item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire, a socio-
demographic questionnaire, and a physical activity questionnaire, respectively. To identify the
major dietary patterns and to model the relationship between dietary patterns and preeclamp-
sia, factor analysis and unconditional logistic regression were employed, respectively. The three
major dietary patterns identified were as follows: healthy dietary pattern (i.e. high in fruits, low-
fat dairy, dried fruits, nuts, vegetables, fruit juice, liquid oil, and tomatoes), western dietary pat-
tern (i.e. high in red meat, processed meat, fried potatoes, and pickles), and Iranian traditional
dietary pattern (i.e. high in eggs, potatoes, and legumes).
Results: After adjustment for confounding factors, we found that with an increase in the healthy
dietary pattern score, the odds of preeclampsia were reduced to 87.5% (OR¼ 0.125, 95%CI:
0.070–0.221, p< .001); with an increase in the western dietary pattern score, the odds of pree-
clampsia were increased 5.99 times (OR¼ 5.99, 95%CI: 3.414–10.53, p< .001); and with an
increase in the Iranian traditional dietary pattern score, the odds of preeclampsia were reduced
to 81.7% (OR¼ 0.183, 95%CI: 0.109–0.308, p< .001).
Conclusion: The findings showed that the western dietary pattern had a direct relationship and
the healthy and Iranian traditional patterns had a reverse relationship with preeclampsi