Pace ND, et al. – The experts wished to figure out whether maternal consumption of nutritional antioxidants was associated with the occurrence of transverse limb deficiency (TLD) and longitudinal limb deficiencies (LLD). They concluded that dietary intake of antioxidants was associated with reduced odds of limb deficiencies. These findings would add value to the women's periconceptional diet.

Methods

• In this study, the experts reviewed data from mothers and their singleton infants with TLD (n = 566), LLD (n = 339), or no malformation (controls; n = 9384) in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (1997–2009).
• With a modified food frequency, usual pre-pregnancy antioxidant consumption was determined by total fruit and vegetable consumption (in grams) grouped into tertiles, and cumulative antioxidant score (ranging from 1 to 10) based on consumption of three antioxidants: beta-carotene, lycopene, and lutein.
• They evaluated odds ratios (OR) adjusted for maternal age, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol use, body mass index, and total energy.

Results

• Findings revealed that compared to women in the lowest tertile of fruit and vegetable consumption, women in the highest tertile were less likely to had infants with TLD (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.57, 0.96) or LLD (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.59, 1.13).
• Compared to the lowest antioxidant consumption score of 1, those with the highest score of 10 had ORs of 0.68 (95% CI 0.48, 0.95) for TLD and 0.77 (95% CI 0.50, 1.17) for LLD.