Diet quality among women participating in the Pregnancy, Exercise, and Nutrition Feasibility Study (1021.8)

Background: A nutrient‐rich diet during pregnancy is critical to optimize gestation and birth outcomes. The PEN program, a team‐based, peer‐led, 20‐session curriculum was used to promote healthy dietary choices and activity during pregnancy to reduce gestational diabetes risk. Methods: The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and the Diet Quality Index for Pregnancy (DQI‐P) were used to assess diet quality of 14 control (CG) and 12 intervention (IG) participants based on food intake measured by the Automated Self‐Administered‐24 Hour Dietary Recall. Mean changes in HEI and DQI‐P scores from baseline (BL) to the 2 nd and 3 rd trimesters (T) were calculated and differences within and between groups were determined using t‐tests. Results: Although no significant differences or changes in mean total HEI or DQI‐P scores were observed between groups at BL, T2, or T3, added sugar consumption was 47.9% lower in the IG (8.7 ± 8.2 tsp‐equivalent) than the CG (16.7 ± 10.6 tsp‐equivalent) at T3 ( P =0.045). Mean DQI‐P fruit score, was higher in the IG, but not significantly, at T2 (6.1 ± 3.7, P =0.16) and T3 (6.3 ± 3.0, P =0.08) than BL (4.9 ± 3.3). Conclusions: These preliminary analyses provide information on variation and effect size of diet quality indices to support a large‐scale, adequately powered, hypothesis‐driven effectiveness trial of the PEN program.Diet Quality Indices BL BL ‐ T2 Change BL ‐ T3 Change HEI(max 100) CG 64 ± 16 ‐0.7 ± 26 ‐0.5 ± 18IG 60 ± 11 4.3 ± 18 0.8 ± 9 DQI‐P(max 80) CG 56 ± 10 1.0 ± 13 ‐1.7 ± 13IG 52 ± 7 6.9 ± 9 4.1 ± 12Mean ± SD