Adherence to AHA diet pattern may reduce pregnancy loss during infertility treatment: JAMA

USA: Adherence to preconception healthy dietary patterns may be associated with a lower likelihood of pregnancy loss during the course of infertility treatment, a cohort study has found. The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open on August 18, 2023.

"Adhering to the American Heart Association (AHA) dietary pattern was inversely tied to total and clinical pregnancy loss in women who achieved pregnancy during the course of infertility treatment with IVF or IUI," the researchers wrote in their study. 

The study aimed to examine the connection between various dietary patterns and outcomes of infertility treatment.

The research, led by Albert Salas-Huetos, MSc, PhD, from institutions including the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the Pere Health Research Institute at Rovira I Virgili University, followed 612 women (median age: 35 years; 82.8% white) undergoing infertility treatment at an academic medical center in Boston. The treatments included both intrauterine insemination cycles and in vitro fertilization, with or without intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Participants' pre-treatment diets were evaluated using a validated food frequency questionnaire, and adherence to eight predefined dietary patterns was assessed. These patterns included the Trichopoulou Mediterranean diet, alternate Mediterranean diet, Panagiotakos Mediterranean diet, Healthy Eating Index, Alternate Healthy Eating Index, AHA index, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) index, and plant-based diets.

The study findings revealed no significant associations between adherence to any of the eight dietary patterns and the likelihood of achieving clinical pregnancy or live birth through infertility treatment. However, a notable inverse association was observed between adherence to the AHA dietary pattern and the risks of both total and clinical pregnancy loss.

For pregnancies that were conceived during infertility treatment, the adjusted probability of total pregnancy loss was 0.41 in the lowest quartile of AHA dietary pattern adherence, compared to 0.28 in the highest quartile (P = .02). Similarly, the adjusted probability of clinical pregnancy loss was 0.30 in the lowest quartile, compared to 0.15 in the highest quartile (P = .007).

These results suggest that following the AHA dietary pattern, characterized by heart-healthy choices, may confer benefits for women undergoing infertility treatment, particularly in reducing the risk of pregnancy loss. However, the study highlighted that more research is needed in this area due to the limited existing literature on the association between nutrition and infertility treatment outcomes. The study's findings could pave the way for designing further studies to explore the effects of nutritional interventions on fertility outcomes.

Reference:

Salas-Huetos A, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.29982.