China: Higher serum levels and dietary intake of vitamin D (VD) lowers the risk of preeclampsia (PE) in pregnant women, finds a recent study in the British Journal of Nutrition.
Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication characterized by dangerously high blood pressure and signs of damage to another organ system, most often the kidneys and liver.
The association between vitamin D and preeclampsia risk is uncertain. Only a few previous studies have focused on the relationship between dietary vitamin D intake and PE risk. , Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China, and colleagues, therefore, conducted a 1:1 matched case-control study to explore the association of dietary vitamin D intake and serum vitamin D concentrations with PE risk in Chinese pregnant women.
The researchers recruited a total of 440 pairs of participants from March 2016 to June 2019. Dietary information was obtained using a 78-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was used to measure serum concentrations of 25(OH)D2 and 25(OH)D3. Restricted cubic splines (RCS) were plotted to evaluate the dose-response relationship of dietary VD intake and serum VD concentrations with PE risk.
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Key findings of the study include:
Compared with the lowest quartile, the ORs of the highest quartile were 0.45 for VD dietary intake and 0.26 for serum levels after adjusting for confounders.
The RCS analysis suggested a reverse J-shaped relationship between dietary VD intake and PE risk.
A similar association was also found between serum concentrations of total 25(OH)D and PE risk.
Our study provides evidence that higher dietary intake and serum levels of VD are associated with the lower risk of PE in Chinese pregnant women, concluded the authors.
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Reference:
The study titled, "Dietary and serum vitamin D and preeclampsia risk in Chinese pregnant women: a matched case–control study," is published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114521002956