Association of Living in a Food Desert and Poor Periconceptional Diet Quality in a Cohort of Nulliparous Pregnant Individuals.

Background: A poor diet can result from adverse social determinants of health and increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Objective: We aimed to assess, using data from the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-Be prospective cohort, whether nulliparous pregnant individuals who lived in a food desert were more likely to experience poorer periconceptional diet quality compared with those who did not live in a food desert.

Methods: The exposure was living in a food desert based on a spatial overview of food access indicators by income and supermarket access per the Food Access Research Atlas. The outcome was periconceptional diet quality per the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2010, analyzed by quartile (Q) from the highest or best (Q4, reference) to the lowest or worst dietary quality (Q1); and secondarily, nonadherence (yes or no) to 12 key aspects of dietary quality.

Results: Among 7,956 assessed individuals, 24.9% lived in a food desert. The mean HEI-2010 score was 61.1 of 100 (SD: 12.5). Poorer periconceptional dietary quality was more common among those who lived in a food desert compared with those who did not live in a food desert (Q4: 19.8%, Q3: 23.6%, Q2: 26.5%, and Q1: 30.0% vs. Q4: 26.8%, Q3: 25.8%, Q2: 24.5%, and Q1: 22.9%; overall P < 0.001). Individuals living in a food desert were more likely to report a diet in lower quartiles of the HEI-2010 (i.e., poorer dietary quality) (aOR: 1.34 per quartile; 95% CI: 1.21, 1.49). They were more likely to be nonadherent to recommended standards for 5 adequacy components of the HEI-2010, including fruit, total vegetables, greens and beans, seafood and plant proteins, and fatty acids, and less likely to report excess intake of empty calories.

Conclusions: Nulliparous pregnant individuals living in a food desert were more likely to experience poorer periconceptional diet quality compared with those who did not live in a food desert.