Maternal Fiber Intake During Pregnancy and Development of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms Across Childhood: The Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study

Berit Skretting Solberg; Liv Grimstvedt Kvalvik; Johanne Telnes Instanes; Catharina A Hartman; Kari Klungsøyr; Lin Li; Henrik Larsson; Per Magnus; Pål Rasmus Njølstad; Stefan Johansson; Ole A Andreassen; Nora Refsum Bakken; Mona Bekkhus; Chloe Austerberry; Dinka Smajlagic; Alexandra Havdahl; Elizabeth C Corfield; Jan Haavik; Rolf Gjestad; Tetyana Zayats

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.12.017

Maternal Fiber Intake During Pregnancy and Development of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms Across Childhood: The Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study

Biol Psychiatry. 2024 May 1;95(9):839-848. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.12.017. Epub 2023 Dec 22.

Authors

Berit Skretting Solberg¹, Liv Grimstvedt Kvalvik², Johanne Telnes Instanes³, Catharina A Hartman⁴, Kari Klungsøyr⁵, Lin Li⁶, Henrik Larsson⁷, Per Magnus⁸, Pål Rasmus Njølstad⁹, Stefan Johansson¹⁰, Ole A Andreassen¹¹, Nora Refsum Bakken¹², Mona Bekkhus¹³, Chloe Austerberry¹⁴, Dinka Smajlagic¹³, Alexandra Havdahl¹⁵, Elizabeth C Corfield¹⁶, Jan Haavik¹⁷, Rolf Gjestad¹⁸, Tetyana Zayats¹⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Norway; Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Outpatient Unit, Hospital Betanien, Bergen, Norway. Electronic address: berit.skretting-solberg@uib.no.
² Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Norway.
³ Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Norway.
⁴ Interdisciplinary Center Psychiatry and Emotion Regulation, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Norway; Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway.
⁶ Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁷ Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; School of Medical Sciences, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden.
⁸ Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁹ Department of Clinical Science, Mohn Center for Diabetes Precision Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; Children and Youth Clinic, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway; Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
¹⁰ Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; Department of Medical Genetics, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
¹¹ NORMENT Centre, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Division of Mental Health and Addiciton, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
¹² NORMENT Centre, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
¹³ Promenta Research Centre, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
¹⁴ Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
¹⁵ Promenta Research Centre, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
¹⁶ Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
¹⁷ Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Norway; Bergen Center for Brain Plasticity, Division of Psychiatry, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway; Department of Psychiatry, Research Department, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
¹⁸ Department of Psychiatry, Research Department, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway; Center for Crisis Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
¹⁹ Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

PMID: 38142720
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.12.017

Abstract

Background: Epidemiological studies suggest that maternal diet quality during pregnancy may influence the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring. Here, we investigated associations between maternal intake of dietary fiber and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in early childhood.

Methods: We used longitudinal data of up to 21,852 mother-father-child trios (49.2% female offspring) from MoBa (the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study). The relationships between maternal fiber intake during pregnancy and offspring ADHD symptoms at ages 3, 5, and 8 years were examined using 1) multivariate regression (overall levels of ADHD symptoms), 2) latent class analysis (subclasses of ADHD symptoms by sex at each age), and 3) 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 sociodemographic factors.

Results: Higher maternal prenatal fiber intake was associated with lower offspring ADHD symptom scores at all ages (B_age3 = -0.14 [95% CI, -0.18 to -0.10]; B_age5 = -0.14 [95% CI, -0.19 to -0.09]; B_age8 = -0.14 [95% CI, -0.20 to -0.09]). Of the derived low/middle/high subclasses of ADHD symptoms, fiber was associated with lower risk of belonging to the middle subclass for boys and girls and to the high subclass for girls only (middle: odds ratio_boys 0.91 [95% CI, 0.86 to 0.97]/odds ratio_girls 0.86 [95% CI, 0.81 to 0.91]; high: odds ratio_girls 0.82 [95% CI, 0.72 to 0.94]). Maternal fiber intake and rate of change in child ADHD symptoms across ages were not associated.

Conclusions: Low prenatal maternal fiber intake may increase symptom levels of ADHD in offspring during childhood, independently of genetic predisposition to ADHD, unhealthy dietary exposures, and sociodemographic factors.

Keywords: ADHD; Genetics; MoBa; Pregnancy; Prenatal nutrition.

MeSH terms

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity* / etiology
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity* / genetics
Child, Preschool
Cohort Studies
Fathers
Female
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Male
Mothers
Norway / epidemiology
Pregnancy
Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects*