Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common disorder in pregnancy. The association of trans fatty acids (TFA) intake and risk of GDM have been reported; It remains unclear whether dietary TFA can influence GDM risk. We examined the effect of low TFA dietary intakes during pregnancy on risk of GDM.
Methods: This randomized controlled trial was performed on 800 pregnant women who were randomly divided into 393 intervention and 407 comparison groups with gestational age ≥7 weeks. In the intervention group, the diet of pregnant women was designed in such a way that their daily intake of TFA content was less than1% but in control group, the daily intake of TFA content was not changed. The dietary intake was assessed using a 24-hour dietary recall questionnaire for three non-consecutive days at the beginning of the pregnancy before week 7, and at 13, 25 and 35 weeks. Diagnosis of GDM was performed using a 3-hour glucose tolerance test with 100 g glucose at 24-28 weeks of gestation.
Results: 14 women in the intervention group (5%) and 31 women in the control group (8%) were diagnosed with GDM. Chi-square test did not show any significant difference between two groups (P=0.08). Cox model was used and the variables were examined in four multivariate models that none of the modals showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the incidence of GDM.
Conclusion: It seems that the diet with low trans-fatty acid content has no effect on the incidence of GDM.
Keywords: Gestational diabetes mellitus; Trans-fatty acids; pregnancy.