Sociodemographic and Lifestyle Characteristics Associated with Maternal Dietary Patterns in Mexico.

There is scarce evidence on sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics that may explain adherence to different dietary patterns (DPs) during pregnancy. Our aims were to identify dietary patterns in a sample of pregnant Mexican women and to describe their association with selected sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics. This is a secondary cross-sectional analysis of 252 mothers of children that participated as controls in a hospital-based case-control study of childhood leukemia. We obtained parents' information about selected sociodemographic characteristics, as well as alcohol and tobacco consumption. We also obtained dietary information during pregnancy. We identified DPs using cluster and factor analyses and we estimated their association with characteristics of interest. We identified two DPs using cluster analysis, which we called "Prudent" and "Non healthy", as well as three DPs through factor analysis, namely "Prudent", "Processed foods and fish", and "Chicken and vegetables". Characteristics associated with greater adherence to "Prudent" patterns were maternal education, older paternal age, not smoking, and being a government employee and/or uncovered population. Likewise, the "Processed foods and fish" pattern was associated with greater maternal and paternal education, as well as those with less household overcrowding. We did not identify sociodemographic variables related to the "Chicken and Vegetables" pattern. Our results may be useful to identify target populations that may benefit from interventions aimed to improve individual dietary decisions during pregnancy.

Maternal diet in pregnancy and acute leukemia in infants: a case-control study in Mexico City.

Introduction: Epidemiological studies around the world on acute leukemia (AL) and risk factors in infants are scarce. Infant AL has been proposed to originate in utero, which facilitates its study by establishing a short exposure time in pregnant women to environmental and dietary factors that could contribute to the risk of or protection against leukemia. We hypothesized that maternal diet during pregnancy may be an important factor involved in AL in offspring. Methods: We conducted a hospital-based case-control study from 2010 to 2019 on maternal diet during pregnancy in nine high-specialty public hospitals of different health institutions that diagnose and offer treatment to children with AL in Mexico City. Cases (n=109) were children ≤24 months of age with de novo diagnosis of AL, and controls (n=252) were children obtained in hospitals from second-level medical care matched for age, sex, and health institution. Maternal diet during pregnancy was obtained by a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to assess the association between food groups and infant AL. Potential confounders were assessed by constructing directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) with Dagitty software in which adjusted options were identified for the construction of unconditional logistic regression models. Results: Cases were slightly predominantly female (52.3%). The years of education of the mother in cases and controls was 0-9 on average, and those who reported smoking cigarettes and consuming alcohol during pregnancy did so at a low frequency. Regarding the mother's diet, the main findings were that the consumption of allium vegetables during pregnancy was inversely associated with AL for medium and high consumption (OR=0.26, 95% CI 0.14-0.46; P-trend< 0.001). In contrast, the high consumption of high-fat dairy products had a positive association with AL (OR=2.37, 95% CI 1.30-4.34; P-trend<0.001). No association was found between consumption of topoisomerase II inhibitor foods during pregnancy and AL. Conclusion: The results suggest that maternal intake during pregnancy of allium vegetables, specifically garlic, is inversely associated with the development of AL in children ≤24 months old. On the other hand, consumption of high-fat dairy products is positively associated with AL in children ≤24 months old.

"Western" and "prudent" dietary patterns are associated with breast cancer among Mexican pre- and postmenopausal women.

Breast cancer (BC) is the leading cancer worldwide among women. "Prudent" dietary patterns have been consistently and negatively associated with the risk of BC. However, prospective studies have shown a positive association between "Western" dietary patterns and the risk of BC, but only among postmenopausal women. In this regard, evidence from Latin America is scarce. Our aim was to assess the hypothesis that 2 dietary patterns (Western or prudent) were contrastingly associated with BC in pre- and postmenopausal women from Northern Mexico. We recruited 1045 BC incident cases and 1030 age matched (±5 years) population controls. Sociodemographic, reproductive, and dietary characteristics were obtained by direct interviews. We used a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire to obtain information about diet 1 year before diagnosis for cases and 1 year before the interview for controls. Dietary patterns were identified through factor analysis. A Western-like pattern, which was mainly determined by positive loads in red and processed meats and foods rich in fats and sugars, was positively associated with BC both in pre- (odds ratio [OR] =23.47; 95% CI, 14.01-36.96) and in postmenopausal women (OR = 18.85; 95% CI, 13.74-25.87). In contrast, a prudent-like pattern, which was characterized by positive loads of vegetables, legumes, and corn, was negatively associated with pre- (OR = 0.35; 95% CI, 0.26-0.49) and postmenopausal BC (OR = 0.25; 95% CI, 0.19-0.32). Our results show the importance of dietary patterns in BC development regardless of menopausal status.

Dietary contribution to total urinary arsenic in Mexican women.

Exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs) damages health in many ways. The main routes of human exposure are consumption of contaminated water and diet, but evidence regarding the dietary contribution of iAs is limited. The objective of this work was to determine the foods and beverages that contribute to urinary total arsenic levels (TAs). This is a secondary analysis of an original study of breast cancer cases and population controls carried out in northern Mexico during the period 2007-2011, from which 1,462 women without a history of diabetes were selected. We estimated the consumption of the food and beverage groups with a frequency questionnaire. We measured the concentrations of urinary iAs metabolites by high performance liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). Total arsenic ranged from 0.5 to 2,360 µg/g creatinine. After adjusting for covariates, we observed a positive association between TAs (with arsenobetaine) with non-bottled drinking water intake, as well as the consumption of root vegetables, vegetables and fruits rich in water, eggs, fish and shellfish. Our findings highlight the relevance of water consumption and some foods for TAs exposure. Food quality monitoring deserves attention in high-risk regions of arsenic contamination.

Dietary Patterns and Breast Cancer Risk in Women from Northern Mexico.

We evaluated the association between dietary patterns and breast cancer (BC) subtypes among women from Northern Mexico. From a study of incident cases and population controls that was carried out from 2007 to 2011, a subsample of 509 cases matched 1:1 by age with 509 controls was selected. Information about expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) was available from medical records to classify BC on luminal (ER + and/or PR+/HER2-), HER2+ (ER+/- and/or PR+/-/HER2+), or triple negative (ER- and PR-/HER2-). Dietary information was gathered using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire and a factor analysis was used to obtain dietary patterns. The association between each dietary pattern and BC molecular subtypes was assessed through conditional logistic regression models. Two dietary patterns were identified. The first (mainly characterized by meat, high fat, and sugary cereals) was positively associated with BC (odds ratio, OR = 12.62; 95% CI: 7.42, 21.45); the second (consisting of corn, legumes, and other vegetables) was inversely associated with BC (OR = 0.50; 95% CI: 0.40, 0.62). Both associations remained significant by BC molecular subtypes. These findings could contribute to the development of public health strategies for BC prevention.