Resumo

SANTOS DE LEON, Concepción; HENRIQUEZ PEREZ, Gladys; DE PAOLI, Ingrid Rached  e  AZUAJE SANCHEZ, Arelis. Nutrient adequacy in pregnant women and its relation to birth weight. An Venez Nutr [online]. 2003, vol.16, n.2, pp.68-77. ISSN 0798-0752.

The purposes of this research were to analyze the compliance of energy and nutrients in pregnant women’s diet according to age group and nutritional status, to characterize the qualitative aspects of the dietary assessment and their relation to the weight of the newborn. The study group consisted of 863 well-nourished, undernourished, and overweight-obese pregnant women, of which 124 were teenagers and 739 were adults. Their newborn babies were classified according to weight at birth. The mothers underwent a seven-day intake recall, and the energy and nutrient requirement and compliance were calculated. The frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, Levene test, one-way ANOVA and chi Square were applied for the statistical analysis. Only a few pregnant women were found in the normal compliance range for energy and macronutrient. Vitamins A and C had a high percentage of pregnant women in the range of excessive compliance; as for the rest of the vitamins and minerals, most women were found in the range of deficient compliance. 52% of the pregnant women vomited, 28% were not hungry, 45% had cravings, and 32% declined foods. There was no significant association between the weight of the newborn and the intake of energy, macro, and micronutrients. The compliance of energy is poor in the pregnant women and no relation between the weight of the newborn and their intake was found.

Palavras-chave : Intake; nutrients; pregnancy; teenager; newborn.