Maternal nut and fish consumption during pregnancy and child risky decision-making at 11 years old

Abstract

Antenatal diet may have a role in the development of impulsivity, and hence in risky decision-making. This study is assessing whether nut and fish consumption during pregnancy is associated with impulsivity and risky decision-making until pre-adolescence. This is a mother-child population-based birth cohort study, INMA (Infancia y Medio Ambiente) project (recruitment years 2004-2008). The final sample included 1386 healthy preadolescents and their mothers. The exposure variables included maternal nut and fish consumption during the first trimester of pregnancy from a validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). The main outcomes were impulsivity index (Attention Network Task, ANT) and the number of risky decision-making (Roulette Task). The association was estimated by multi-variable linear regression models. Children whose mothers were at the highest nut intake tertile showed less risky decision scores compared to those at the lowest tertile (β = -1.49, 95%CI = -2.85; -0.14; p-for-trend = 0.03). Fish consumption showed a positive association with ANT impulsivity index (the coefficient for second quintile compared to the lowest β = 65.73, 95%CI = 1.11; 130.35), with a p-value < 0.05 and a p-for-trend = 0.61. Although, no association was observed between fish consumption and risky decision-making outcome. Our study suggests that a higher nut intake during early pregnancy may be related with less risky decision-making in the 11-year-old children. Also, that a moderate intake of fish during early pregnancy seems to be associated with higher impulsivity in the offspring. The latter finding may be indicative of no benefits observed from seafood consumption.