Maternal and Sociodemographic Factors Influence the Consumption of Ultraprocessed and Minimally-Processed Foods in Pregnant Women

Objective To analyze the consumption of minimally-processed and ultraprocessed foods in relation with sociodemographic variables, maternal habits, educational activity received during prenatal care and clinical history. Methods A cross-sectional, analytical and descriptive study with 1,035 pregnant women who lives in the municipalities of the metropolitan region of Grande Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil (RMGV-ES), and who were hospitalized in establishments of the Unified Health System (SUS) due to childbirth (April–September 2010). The food frequency questionnaire, pregnant woman's card and information from the medical records of the health facility unit were analyzed. The Chi-square test and the binary logistic regression model were used to investigate the association between the independent variables and the consumption of ultraprocessed foods. Results It was identified that pregnant women ≤19 years of age were 2.9 times more likely to consume ultraprocessed foods (confidence interval [CI] 95% 1.683–5.168, p < 0.001), while those ≥35 years old were less likely to consume them (odds ratio [OR] 0.265, 95% CI 0.105–0.666, p = 0.005). Maternal smoking increased the odds of consumption of ultraprocessed foods by 2.2 times (95% CI 1.202–4.199, p = 0.011) and pregnant women who did not obtain information on healthy food during prenatal care presented 54.1% less chances of consuming minimally-processed foods (OR 0.459, 95% CI 0.307–0.687, p < 0.001). Conclusion Smoking during the gestational period and being a teenager are factors that influence the consumption of ultraprocessed foods of pregnant women. Race/color, head of household, age group, receiving of information about feeding in the prenatal period and not having smoked in gestation determined the consumption of minimally-processed foods.