Interpretation
The results of this study are consistent with the association of healthy
dietary patterns in pregnancy with lower odds of
GDM17,20, HDP17,20, preterm
birth16,19,20 and SGA19 reported in
previous systematic reviews. These results highlight the potential
benefits of a healthy diet on the regulation of glycaemia and systemic
inflammation through the consumption of low glycemic-index foods and
micronutrients3,67. We found no significant
association between diet quality and excessive/inadequate gestational
weight gain, LGA/macrosomia, and birthweight as a continuous variable.
These results concord with previous research suggesting that energy
intake, rather than diet quality, is the main driver of gestational
weight gain and fetal growth67. No study evaluating
the association of diet quality with delivery mode was identified. Only
two cohorts (four studies) included measures of dietary quality in
prepregnancy, which limited our ability to draw conclusions on subgroup
analyses in prepregnancy. Studies were all of moderate or good quality
and sensitivity analyses revealed consistent findings with the exclusion
of moderate quality studies.