Antioxidant Consumption Is Associated with Decreased Odds of Congenital Limb Deficiencies

Citation

Pace, Nelson D.; Desrosiers, Tania A.; Carmichael, Suzan L.; Shaw, Gary M.; Olshan, Andrew F.; Siega-Riz, Anna Maria; & the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, (2018). Antioxidant Consumption Is Associated with Decreased Odds of Congenital Limb Deficiencies. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 32(1), 90-99. PMCID: PMC5771883

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Approximately 1 in 2000 infants is born with a limb deficiency in the US. Research has shown that women's periconceptional diet and use of vitamin supplements can affect risk of birth defects. We investigated whether maternal consumption of nutritional antioxidants was associated with occurrence of transverse limb deficiency (TLD) and longitudinal limb deficiencies (LLD).
METHODS: We analysed case-control data from mothers and their singleton infants with TLD (n = 566), LLD (n = 339), or no malformation (controls; n = 9384) in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (1997-2009). Using a modified food frequency, we estimated usual pre-pregnancy antioxidant consumption by total fruit and vegetable consumption (in grams) grouped into tertiles, and cumulative antioxidant score (ranging from 1 to 10) based on consumption of three antioxidants: beta-carotene, lycopene, and lutein. We estimated odds ratios (OR) adjusted for maternal age, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol use, body mass index, and total energy.
RESULTS: Compared to women in the lowest tertile of fruit and vegetable consumption, women in the highest tertile were less likely to have infants with TLD (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.57, 0.96) or LLD (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.59, 1.13). Compared to the lowest antioxidant consumption score of 1, those with the highest score of 10 had ORs of 0.68 (95% CI 0.48, 0.95) for TLD and 0.77 (95% CI 0.50, 1.17) for LLD.
CONCLUSIONS: Dietary intake of antioxidants was associated with reduced odds of limb deficiencies. These findings add further evidence for women's periconceptional diet reducing occurrence of some birth defects.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ppe.12403

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2018

Journal Title

Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology

Author(s)

Pace, Nelson D.
Desrosiers, Tania A.
Carmichael, Suzan L.
Shaw, Gary M.
Olshan, Andrew F.
Siega-Riz, Anna Maria
the National Birth Defects Prevention Study,

PMCID

PMC5771883

ORCiD

Olshan - 0000-0001-9115-5128
Siega-Riz - 0000-0002-1303-4248