Vitamin and mineral nutritional status of healthy pregnant women improved by nutrient supplements

Abstract

Including varied and healthy food in daily diet that contains adequate amounts of nutrients is vital during pregnancy, especially when there is an increased requirement for several micronutrients. The aim of this study was to evaluate vitamin and mineral status of healthy pregnant women (N = 69) and to determine whether nutrient supplements improve their nutritional status. The evaluation of nutritional status was done by Prodi 5.7 Expert Plus computer programme and IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0 for statistical analysis. Nutrient intake of vitamins C, D, E, folic acid and minerals iron, iodine, calcium and sodium were compared with Reference values for nutrient intake (2004). Results of our study show that the most problematic nutrients are folate, iron and vitamin D. Intake of vitamins and minerals with food is of concern, as 46.4 % of all participants are indicated as women with poor nutritional status (sufficient in two or less nutrients), moreover none of them met the demand for six out of seven studied nutrients. Taking supplementation into account, 27.5 % of participants covered the need for six or more nutrients, however almost a quarter of studied subjects still remain in the group with poor nutritional status. In conclusion among participants who decided to take supplements, the vast majority of them improved their vitamin-mineral status moreover few of them improved their status significantly. Therefore the use of nutrient supplements could on average improve vitamin-mineral status as intake with a diet is obviously inadequate.