Diet quality and nutritional status of pregnant women treated in public hospitals in Paraguay

Introduction: Diet quality plays a fundamental role in the development of a pregnancy. Objective: To determine the quality of diet and nutritional status of pregnant women attending public hospitals in the capital during the period from July to September 2023. Methods: This was a descriptive, observational, cross-sectional, cross-sectional study with cross association, where 104 adult pregnant women were surveyed, with prior informed consent, sociodemographic and anthropometric variables were collected and a questionnaire on dietary habits was filled in. The data were digitalized in Microsoft Office® Excel® 2010 spreadsheets. They were analyzed with the statistical package Epi Info® version 7.2.5.0. Results: Those pregnant women who presented adequate nutritional status (n=23) according to anthropometric parameters obtained a higher mean score (8.61 ±1.59 SD), while those who presented some type of malnutrition obtained lower mean scores. No statistically significant difference was found between group averages when applying the ANOVA test (p>0.05). Conclusion: Excess malnutrition in pregnant women is high and the average diet quality score decreases in those who presented some type of malnutrition. Given the growing epidemic of chronic noncommunicable diseases, it is of vital importance to invest in public health policies that promote adequate nutrition during pregnancy, so that the quality of the diet can be improved.