The relationship between dietary phytochemical index and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus in Iran: a case-control study.

Background: The risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus has been linked to dietary factors. This is one of the first studies that has investigated the relationship between dietary phytochemical index (DPI) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between DPI and GDM.

Methods: This case-control study investigated 71 women without GDM and 71 women with GDM who had a singleton fetus. The average age of these two groups was 28 and 33 years, respectively, and these pregnant mothers were in the 27th week of pregnancy on average. A 168-item semi-quantitative FFQ questionnaire was used to determine food intake. Then, to check the intake status of dietary phytochemicals, DPI was calculated, then logistic regression was used in different models to evaluate the relationship between DPI and GDM.

Results: After adjusting for confounding factors, participants in the highest DPI tertile had 88% less chance of developing GDM (odds ratio = 0.12; 95% confidence intervals: 0.86-0.019). The mean DPI score of the case and control groups were 31.01 ± 22.17 and 36.09 ± 8.73, respectively. The overall mean DPI score for the study was 33.59 ± 18.88.

Conclusion: Women who have a higher DPI score are less likely to develop GDM, but more studies are necessary to confirm the results of the present study.