The contribution of prenatal care in the dietary patterns of high-risk pregnant women

Abstract

Abstract Objectives: investigate whether prenatal characteristics were associated with dietary pattern of pregnant women. Methods: we studied 200 high-risk pregnant women in Fortaleza, Ceará. The identification of dietary patterns was performed through principal component analysis with the orthogonal Varimax rotation. Poisson regression was used to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) and respective confidence intervals (CI95%). Results: three major dietary patterns were identified: ‘common Brazilian’, ‘healthy’ and ‘energy-dense’. After adjustments conducted with multivariate analysis, pregnant women who had not received dietary guidance in prenatal consultations (34%) were less likely to adhere to the ‘healthy’ pattern (PR = 0,81; CI95%= 0,67-0,95). Pregnant women who attended an appropriate number of consultations (≥ 6 consultations) (41%) showed greater adherence to the ‘healthy’ pattern (PR = 1,15; CI95%= 1,01-1,32) and lower adherence to the ‘energy-dense’ pattern (PR = 0,85; CI95%= 0,74-0,99). Conclusion: it was observed that the high-risk pregnant women who attended an adequate number of consultations during the prenatal care had a higher chance to adhere to the ‘healthy’ pattern and a lower chance to adhere to the ‘energy-dense’ pattern. Not receiving guidelines on prenatal nutrition was inversely associated with the healthy pattern. Thus, the importance of high-risk pregnant women undergoing an appropriate prenatal care is reinforced.