Avaliação das habilidades culinárias de mulheres em até um ano pós-parto e associação com o consumo alimentar e estado de saúde

Abstract

Pregnancy and postpartum are periods of diverse metabolic and physiological changes, in which nutrition plays an important role in maintaining maternal health. There is a growing increase in the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF), which is associated with the development of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), in different life cycles, including the postpartum period. The choice for AUP is often the result of a lack of time to prepare meals and individuals' lack of confidence in using their culinary skills. The present study aims to evaluate the use of culinary skills and associate them with individual and health conditions, and the consumption of ultra-processed foods by women up to one year postpartum attended at the Family Health Strategy Units in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. This is a cross-sectional study developed with women aged 18 or over, in the postpartum period, who are monitored in one of the 37 Family Health Strategy Units (ESF), in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. Study participants were invited to answer a questionnaire, consisting of four sessions. In the first session, personal information such as name, age, address, race classification, education level and socioeconomic conditions were requested. The second session on culinary autonomy sought to identify the participant's autonomy and level of confidence, as well as knowledge for preparing and pre-preparing food, using the Culinary Skills Index (IHC). In the third session, maternal information was collected, with data regarding pregnancy monitoring, type of delivery, pre-pregnancy weight (PPG), current weight, height, and the presence of chronic diseases (diabetes, hypertension and obesity). The fourth session consisted of a semiquantitative food consumption questionnaire. 360 women were evaluated, 36% of whom were white, 64.9% were non-white (black, brown or indigenous), 37.1% in relation to age, were between 18 and 25 years old, 44.8% were between 26 and 35 years old and 18.1% between 36 and 45 years old. Regarding the level of education, 11.9% declared themselves to be illiterate or with incomplete primary education, 24.4% declared themselves to have completed primary education, 53.5% to have completed secondary education and 10.8% to have completed higher education. Regarding socioeconomic conditions, 16.9% were in social classes (A, B1 and B2), 73.9% in (C1 and C2), 10.1% in (D and E). Regarding the current nutritional status, 4.4% were underweight, 38.2% were eutrophic, 28.9% were overweight and 28.4% were obese. The average Culinary Skills Index in the studied population was 73.98 ± 17.97 points. There were significant differences between the HCI means in women with higher education, higher income and lower weight retention. No significant differences were observed between the groups with the highest and lowest consumption of ultra-processed foods, regarding the level of cooking skills. A weak positive correlation was found between IHC and age, a moderate positive correlation between IHC and education level and a weak negative correlation between IHC and postpartum weight retention. It is observed from the results of this study that a good level of culinary skills was associated with a higher age range, higher level of education and socioeconomic conditions and lower weight retention in the postpartum period.