Consumo de alimentos ultraprocessados e fatores associados em gestantes atendidas na rede pública de saúde de Maceió, Alagoas, Brasil

Abstract

Introduction: The consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) is more present in the population's eating habits, with a nutritional composition that has a high sodium and sugar content, low amount of micronutrients and high caloric density. During pregnancy, the high consumption of these foods has been related to a higher risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), hypertensive disorders and maternal obesity, in addition to worse adverse outcomes for the child. Objective: To evaluate UPF consumption and associated factors in pregnant women treated at the public health network in Maceió. Methodology: Cross-sectional study, with pregnant women participating in a larger research entitled "Development and validation of a food frequency questionnaire for pregnant women", developed from 2018 to 2020. Clinical, socioeconomic, anthropometric and dietary pattern data were collected, the latter obtained through the application of a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) validated for pregnant women and stratified into food groups according to the NOVA food classification. Data analyzes were carried out with the aid of the statistical program SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 21.0, adopting a confidence level of 95% (α=0.05). The normality of the distribution was evaluated by applying the Kolmogorov-Sminorv test, Pearson's χ2 test, Poisson regression with robust variance were performed to assess the association between the independent variables and the consumption of ultra-processed foods (consumption quartile 4). The project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Alagoas under opinion number 2,814,845. Results: 100 pregnant women participated in the study, in which 25% were adolescents, 38.3% had completed high school, 74.7% had a family income greater than 1 minimum wage and 91.9% were not below the line of poverty. A high energy contribution of UPF foods was observed in the diet of these pregnant women (35%), and this high consumption was associated with: maternal age group ≤19 years (PR=1.21; 95%CI 1.050-1.399; p=0.009), education incomplete elementary school (PR=1.22; 95%CI 1.067-1.399); p=0.004), complete primary education (PR=1.33; 95%CI 1.005-1762; p=0.046), complete secondary education (PR=1.21; 95%CI 1.070-1.381; p=0.003), underweight pre -gestational (PR=1.39; 95%CI 1.152-1.698; p=0.001) and gestational obesity (PR=0.83; 95%CI 0.718-0.965; p=0.015). Conclusion: The study showed a high energy contribution of UPF in the maternal diet, being associated with factors such as chronological age, education and pre-gestational and gestational nutritional status.