title: Dietary fibre intake of pregnant women attending general practices in southern Brazil--the ECCAGE Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Increase in fibre intake during pregnancy may reduce weight gain, glucose intolerance, dyslipidaemia, pre-eclampsia and constipation. Few studies have evaluated adequacy of fibre intake during pregnancy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess, through an FFQ, the dietary fibre intake of pregnant women receiving prenatal care from general public practices and compare it with current guidelines.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional analyses of a pregnancy cohort study (ECCAGE-Study of Food Intake and Eating Behaviour in Pregnancy) conducted in eighteen general practices in southern Brazil, from June 2006 to April 2007.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five hundred and seventy-eight pregnant women with mean (SD) age of 24.9 (6.5) years and mean gestational age of 24.5 (5.8) weeks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean energy intake was 11 615 kJ/d (2776 kcal/d). The mean total fibre intake (30.2 g/d) was slightly above the recommended value of 28 g/d (P < 0.001), yet 50% (95% CI 46, 54) of the women failed to meet the recommendation. Whole-grain fibre constituted only 1% of total fibre intake in the cereal group. In adjusted Poisson regression analyses, not meeting the recommendation for fibre intake was associated with alcohol intake (prevalence ratio 1.29; 95% CI 1.11, 1.50) and absence of nutritional guidance (prevalence ratio 1.22; 95% CI 1.05, 1.42) during pregnancy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  About half of the pregnant women failed to meet the recommended fibre intake, especially those not reporting nutritional guidance during pregnancy. For most women, whole-grain cereal intake was absent or trivial. Taken together, our data indicate the need, at least in this setting, for greater nutritional education in prenatal care.
authors.affiliation: Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Graduate Studies Program in Epidemiology, UFRGS/Departamento de Medicina Social/PPG-Epidemiologia, Rua Ramiro Barcelos, Porto Alegre, Brazil. caroline.buss@ufrgs.br
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Buss
authors.forename: Maria Angélica
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nunes
authors.forename: Suzi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Camey
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Manzolli
authors.forename: Rafael Marques
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Drehmer
authors.forename: Andressa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giacomello
authors.forename: Bruce Bartholow
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.forename: Maria Inês
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004043:Dietary Fiber / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D039401:Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*