Dietary quality and nutritional status of pregnant women in Sumenep regency, Madura, Indonesia

Background and Objective: It is important for pregnant women to have a good quality diet since it affects their nutritional status and that of the fetus. The present study analyzed the correlation between dietary quality and nutritional status of pregnant women in Sumenep Regency, Madura Island, Indonesia. Methodology: The present cross-sectional study assessed the nutritional status and the dietary quality of 145 pregnant women aged 18-49 years living in Sumenep Regency. The nutritional status was analyzed based on Gestational Weight Gain (GWG). Alternate Healthy Eating Index for Pregnancy (AHEI-P) and Indonesian-adapted AHEI-P was used to analyze the dietary quality. A validity test was conducted on both AHEI-Ps by analyzing the Pearson correlation coefficient. Pearson analysis was also used to analyze correlations between dietary quality and GWG. Results: The result showed 62.15% of subjects had inadequate Gestational Weight Gain (GWG). Validity testing of the adapted AHEI-P showed a higher validity score compared to the unadapted version (0.804 versus 0.783). According to both AHEI-P analyses, the dietary quality of most subjects needed improvement. Subjects whose GWGs were inadequate had the lowest mean score for both AHEI-Ps but no significant correlation (p>0.05) was found between GWG and either AHEI-P. Conclusion: Overall, subjects needed to improve their dietary quality. Although AHEI-P scores increased with improvements in GWG, no significant correlations were found.