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

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.