The information available on the effects of maternal dietary habits on systemic inflammation and adverse maternal outcomes is limited. We aimed to evaluate whether Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) score during pregnancy is associated with maternal body mass index (BMI), Mediterranean diet (MD) adherence, and perinatal outcomes. At 19−23 weeks’ gestation, 1028 pregnant women were recruited. Dietary information was assessed using a 17-item dietary score to evaluate MD adherence and a validated 151-item food frequency questionnaire. DII score was established according to 33 food and nutritional proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory items. Participants were distributed into tertiles according to the DII score, where a lower DII score (first tertile) represented an anti-inflammatory diet and the third tertile represented the more proinflammatory diet. Maternal characteristics and perinatal outcomes were collected, and newborns’ birthweight percentiles were calculated. Adjusted logistic regression models were used to assess the association of the DII score with maternal and perinatal characteristics, setting the third tertile as the reference group. Women in the third tertile showed lower adherence to MD score compared to the first tertile: median (25th to 75th percentile) 9 (7 to 11) vs. 6 (4.25 to 8), p < 0.001. The proinflammatory diet was significantly associated with a higher maternal pre-pregnancy BMI (adjusted β = 0.88; 95% CI: 0.31 to 1.45) and lower newborn’s birthweight percentile (adjusted β = −9.84th; 95% CI: −19.6 to −0.12). These data show that a proinflammatory diet profile may be associated with maternal overweight and fetal undergrowth.
Keywords: Dietary Inflammatory Index; Mediterranean diet; birthweight percentile; pregnancy.