NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND EATING HABITS OF PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING A PRIMARY HEALTH CARE PROGRAM

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the nutritional status and eating habits of pregnant women with low obstetric risk attending prenatal consultations in primary health care. Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach carried out with 95 pregnant women from September 2015 to February 2016. The Nutrition Monitoring Chart of the pregnant women was used for nutritional evaluation, which includes the Body Mass Index (BMI). The data were analyzed by the Chi-square test considering significance level of p≤0.05. Results: The majority of pregnant women had adequate weight (66.3%) at the beginning of prenatal consultations. In the third trimester, 61.1% of them were overweight and 15% obese. Even with a large number of overweight pregnant women, it was observed that 93.7% of the pregnant women's cards did not contain information about the follow-up of their BMI. Regarding dietary habits, 51.6% of the women reported having 3 meals a day, 52.6% consumed natural foods daily, 48.4% did not have a specific meal time, and most of them preferred eating regular food than fast food. In addition, we observed a predominance of overweight in the third gestational trimester (61.3% of pregnant women) and a relationship between nutritional status (overweight) with blood pressure (p = 0.003), hemoglobin (p = 0.000) and glycemia (p = 0.036). Conclusion: In our study, most of the pregnant women surveyed were overweight in the third trimester of pregnancy and had eating habits considered healthy by those who had more than one year of study. DESCRIPTORS: Prenatal Care. Nutritional status. Pregnancy. Eating habits.