Water Intake in Pregnant Women in China, 2018: The Report of a Survey

Background: Adequate water intake in pregnant women plays an important role in their health and in fetal growth and development. However, there is insufficient applicable data to guide and evaluate the water intake of pregnant women in China. Based on a nationwide sample of pregnant women, we mainly aimed to investigate the daily total water intake (TWI) and the contribution of different beverages and food sources to the TWI, to assess the percentage of participants who comply with the adequate intake (AI) value of water set by the Chinese Nutrition Society (CNS) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and to analyze the contribution of different water sources to the daily total energy intake (TEI). Methods: A multi-stage sampling method was used to recruit pregnant women from 11 provinces and two municipalities in China. A 4-day online diary with a food atlas was used to assess water and dietary intake. Finally, 653 pregnant women were included in the analysis. The Mann–Whitney U test and the independent-sample t-test were used to compare the differences between related variables in different age groups or different gestational periods, and partial correlation was used to explore the correlation between water and energy intake. Results: The median daily TWI of pregnant women was 2190 mL, of which water from beverages and foods accounted for 52.9% and 47.1%, respectively. Approximately 80.5% of the water from beverages was mainly from plain water (r = 0.973), while in the part of the water from foods, dishes (32.4%) were the main contributors (r = 0.663). Only 16.4% and 43.8% of the total population met the TWI recommendation set by the CNS and EFSA, respectively. Among these, the contribution of the water from beverages was higher than that of the water from food. For those whose TWI did not reach the recommended level, the contribution of the water from beverages was almost equal to that of food. The median daily TEI of pregnant women was 1589 kcal, of which beverages accounted for 9.7%. Milk and milk derivatives (71.3%) were the main contributors to energy from beverages, accounting for 71.3% (r = 0.444). Although sugar-sweetened drinks only accounted for 10.1% of the energy from beverages, they were highly correlated with energy from beverages (r = 0.836). Through grouping analysis, age and gestational period had no significant effect on the above main results. Conclusions: This was the beginning of a nationwide study on the TWI of pregnant women in China, and the results provide evidence of the need for interventions to improve water intake among pregnant women and the revision of reference values for AI of TWI in pregnant women in China.