Women’s food consumption during pregnancy and at postpartum: changes in COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract Objectives: to evaluate changes in pregnant women’s food consumption and at postpartum during COVID-19 pandemic and its related factors. Methods: a cross-sectional study, collecting anthropometric, sociodemographic, clinical and food consumption data on women who gave birth during the months of the highest incidence of COVID-19 in three Brazilian public hospitals. Results: 459 women participated in the study, with a median age of 28 years (Interquartile Range 9) and family income of up to one minimum wage (38.6%). A reduction was identified in a regular consumption of ready-to-eat food prepared outside the home (20.9% vs 31.6%; p<0.001), processed meat (34.9% vs 39.9%; p=0.011), stuffed cookies and sweets (40.5% vs 45.3%; p=0.016) and meat (75.8% vs 84.3%; p<0.001) during the pandemic. There was no association of these changes with the investigated variables. Conclusions: there was a reduction in the consumption of ultra-processed food and meat during COVID-19 pandemic among the participants. Such findings may be positive given the harmful effects of consuming ultra-processed food and excess on meat on maternal and child’s health. Changes in lifestyles and access to food received in the pandemic context may have influenced the results, requiring monitoring and new studies on this group’s food consumption to understand the changes and their long-term impacts.