Soy consumption and incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus: the Japan Environment and Children’s Study

European Journal of Nutrition volume 60, pages897–904(2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Intervention studies have shown that isoflavone treatment improved glucose metabolism, indicating that soy intake may have a potential role in diabetes prevention.

Objectives

We aimed to investigate the prospective association of soy isoflavone and soy food intakes with incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in a birth cohort study.

Methods

We recruited 97,454 pregnant women (median gestational age 12 weeks) between January 2011 and March 2014. Dietary intakes during the 12 months preceding study enrollment were assessed by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. The relative risks of GDM associated with soy isoflavone and soy food intakes were obtained by Poisson regression. Demographic information, histories of diseases, socioeconomic status, lifestyles, and dietary habits, obtained by a self-administrated questionnaire, were used for covariate adjustments.

Results

We identified 1904 cases of GDM (2.2%) among 84,948 women. Compared with those in the lowest quintile of soy isoflavone intake, women in the highest quintile were found to have experienced a significantly lower risk of GDM (multivariate relative risk = 0.82; 95% confidence interval: 0.70, 0.95; P for trend = 0.05). Similar results were observed for genistein and daidzein. Regarding soy foods, intakes of miso soup and natto were inversely associated with GDM incidence (both P for trend ≤ 0.01), whereas the association for tofu intake appeared to be nonlinear (P for trend = 0.74).

Conclusions

Higher intakes of miso soup and natto before and during early pregnancy, compared with lower intakes, may be associated with a lower incidence of GDM.

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Acknowledgements

The present analysis was based on the dataset of jecs-ag-20160424 released in June 2016 and revised in October 2016. Members of the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS) as of 2019 (principal investigator, Michihiro Kamijima): Shin Yamazaki (National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan), Yukihiro Ohya (National Centre for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan), Reiko Kishi (Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan), Nobuo Yaegashi (Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan), Koichi Hashimoto (Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan), Chisato Mori (Chiba University, Chiba, Japan), Shuichi Ito (Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan), Zentaro Yamagata (University of Yamanashi, Chuo, Japan), Hidekuni Inadera (University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan), Michihiro Kamijima (Nagoya City University, Nagoya, Japan), Takeo Nakayama (Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan), Hiroyasu Iso (Osaka University, Suita, Japan), Masayuki Shima (Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Japan), Youichi Kurosawa (Tottori University, Yonago, Japan), Narufumi Suganuma (Kochi University, Nankoku, Japan), Koichi Kusuhara (University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan), and Takahiko Katoh (Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan).

Funding

The Japan Environment and Children’s Study was funded by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. The findings and conclusions of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the official views of the above government.

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Affiliations

  1. Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Jia-Yi Dong, Satoyo Ikehara, Meishan Cui & Hiroyasu Iso

  2. Department of Public Health, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

    Takashi Kimura

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Osaka, Japan

    Yoko Kawanishi & Tadashi Kimura

  4. Maternal and Child Health Information Center, Osaka Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Izumi, Osaka, Japan

    Kimiko Ueda

  5. Department of Public Health Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Hiroyasu Iso

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  1. Jia-Yi Dong
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Correspondence to Hiroyasu Iso.

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The Japan Environment and Children’s Study Group members are listed in “Acknowledgement” section.

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Dong, JY., Kimura, T., Ikehara, S. et al. Soy consumption and incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus: the Japan Environment and Children’s Study. Eur J Nutr 60, 897–904 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02294-1

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Keywords

  • Soy
  • Isoflavone
  • Gestational diabetes mellitus
  • Cohort study
  • Prevention