Assessment of nutritional quality in healthy pregnant women of the Canary Islands, Spain

Background and objective: To describe the composition of the diet of healthy pregnant women of the Canary Islands and to estimate the nutritional quality using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI). Patients and method: Cross-sectional study based on 103 women aged 18-40 years, who gave birth at the University Hospital Materno-Infantil of Gran Canaria. Food consumption and macro and micronutrient intake were estimated using a food frequency questionnaire used in the Canary Island Nutrition Survey (ENCA) and the HEI was calculated. This index includes 10 components and the maximum possible score of the index is 100 points. Results: The score of the index was 54,9. This result remains below the optimum score of 2:80, which is considered a diet of good quality of pregnant women in our study population. The average score of the first 5 components of the index showed that cereal consumption was below the daily portions recommended for pregnant women, whereas vegetables, fruit, milk and meat consumption surpassed the recommendations. A significant number of pregnant women did not reach the 50% of the recommendations for iron, folate and vitamin D intake (36,9, 26,2 and 38,8% respectively). At least 30% of the population exceeded 200% of the recommendations for proteins, thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, vitamin C and vitamin A. Conclusions: Dietary advice for improving the diet quality during pregnancy and the supplementation of mainly iron and folate are necessary. (c) 2008 Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.