| dc.description.abstract | Adequate and healthy nutrition during pregnancy promotes favorable outcomes for the health of the mother and baby in the short and long term. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of the diet, through the Diet Quality Index Adapted to Pregnant Women in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais. This study is part of the research entitled "ALGE Study - Assessment of health conditions of pregnant women in Montes Claros-MG: longitudinal study". This is an epidemiological, population-based, quantitative, and analytical study. The research was conducted with pregnant women registered in the Urban Area Family Health Strategies. For the selection of pregnant women in this study, pregnant women with twins and those with cognitive impairment were excluded. Data collection took place between 2018 and 2019 in the places of consultations or in the homes of pregnant women. For data collection, a single questionnaire was used that addressed sociodemographic, obstetric, clinical, behavioral, and nutritional status characteristics, however, for dietary information, a food frequency questionnaire was used and to assess the quality of the diet, the Diet Quality Index Adapted to Pregnant Women was used. Descriptive analyzes of the investigated variables were performed through their frequency distribution. Then, bivariate analyzes were performed using the chi-square test, and variables with a significance level of less than 0.20 were selected for the multiple analysis. The logistic regression model was used, with the variables with a significance level of 5% remaining in the final model. The average diet quality index score was 72.75 and ranged from 21.69 to 100.00. Of the 1279 pregnant women who participated in the study, 1244 answered all items of the questionnaire, being elective for the study. It was observed that 56% of the pregnant women were between 20 and 30 years old, 40% were in the second trimester of pregnancy, 63% reported episodes of vomiting, 43% reported performing light physical activity and 71% reported having received dietary guidance in the prenatal period. In this sense, the prevalence of eating with the lowest scores were identified in the first tercile and were related to sociodemographic variables, in pregnant women with low education (primary education) (PR=2.41), with behavioral characteristics, in sedentary pregnant women (PR=1.18) and with nutritional status, in pregnant women who reported negative self-perception of eating (PR=1.42) and pregnant women who had 5 or fewer meals a day (PR=1.42), when compared to pregnant women who had the highest scores present in the third tercile in pregnant women with higher education, non-sedentary pregnant women, who reported positive self-perception and pregnant women who ate more than 5 meals a day. Therefore, pregnant women with lower educational levels, sedentary, who reported negative self-perception of eating and who had less than 5 meals a day, had lower scores on the Diet Quality Index. Nutritional interventions and public policies are needed to promote a better quality of diet for pregnant women. | |
