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Dietary patterns and difficulty conceiving: a nested case-control study
Estefania Toledo1, Cristina Lopez-del Burgo, Alvaro Ruiz-Zambrana
1Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Navarra, Spain. etoledo@unav.es
Objective:
To investigate potential associations between dietary patterns (defined using factor analysis) and difficulty conceiving.
Design:
Case-control study nested in a Spanish cohort of university graduates (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra [SUN] Project).
Setting:
Female university graduates all over Spain participating in the SUN Project.
Patient(S):
A total of 485 women, aged 20-45 years, reporting having presented with difficulty getting pregnant, and 1,669 age-matched controls who had at least one child.
Intervention(S):
None.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Reported difficulty getting pregnant. Data were collected from baseline and follow-up questionnaires of the SUN Project.
Result(S):
Two dietary patterns were identified. They were labeled as "Mediterranean-type" and "Western-type" patterns. A lower risk of difficulty getting pregnant was apparent in the highest quartile of adherence to the Mediterranean-type pattern compared with the lowest quartile (odds ratio 0.56, 95% confidence interval 0.35-0.95). Greater adherence to the Western-type dietary pattern showed no association with this outcome.
Conclusion(S):
A greater adherence to the Mediterranean-type dietary pattern may enhance fertility. Further evidence about the relationship between this dietary pattern and fertility is needed to develop nutritional interventions for women desiring to get pregnant.
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