Maternal fiber intake during pregnancy and development of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms Across Childhood: The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa)

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies suggest that the maternal diet quality during pregnancy may influence the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in the offspring. Here we investigated the associations between maternal intake of dietary fiber and ADHD symptoms in early childhood.

METHODS: We used longitudinal data of up to 21,852 mother-father-child trios (49.2% females) from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study. The relationships between maternal fiber intake during pregnancy and offspring ADHD symptoms at ages three, five, and eight years were examined using: a) multivariate regression (overall levels of ADHD symptoms), b) latent class analysis (subclasses of ADHD symptoms by sex at each age), and c) latent growth curves (longitudinal change in offspring ADHD symptoms). Covariates were ADHD polygenic scores in child and parents, total energy intake and energy-adjusted sugar intake, parental ages at birth of the child, and socio-demographic factors.

RESULTS: a) Higher maternal prenatal fiber intake was associated with lower offspring ADHD symptom scores at all examined ages (β age3=-0.14(95%CI -0.18, -0.10); β age5=-0.14(-0.19, -0.09); β age8=-0.14(-0.20, -0.09)). b) Of the derived low/middle/high subclasses of ADHD symptoms, fiber was associated with lower risk of belonging to middle subclass for boys and girls, and to high subclass for girls only (middle: OR boys 0.91(0.86-0.97)/OR girls 0.86 (0.81-0.91); high OR girls 0.82 (0.72-0.94)). c) Maternal fiber intake and rate of change in child ADHD symptoms across ages were not associated.

CONCLUSIONS: A low prenatal maternal fiber intake may increase symptom levels of ADHD in childhood, independently of genetic predisposition to ADHD, unhealthy dietary exposures, and socio-demographic factors.