Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction

The respect of dietetic rules constitutes the cornerstone of the management of gestational diabetes (GD). The aim of our study was to describe the spontaneous food intake in Tunisian women followed for GD.

Methods

This is a descriptive and retrospective study, including 82 patients followed at the gestational diabetes unit of the National Institute of Nutrition. We analyzed: age, pre-conceptional body mass index (BMI), weight gain during pregnancy and food survey.

Results

The average age of our population was 33.5 years (19–44 years). The average preconception BMI was 29 kg/m²(18–47.2 kg/m²). The average weight gain during pregnancy was 6 kg (–14 to + 37 kg) Pregnant women followed for gestational diabetes were investigated at the average term of 28 weeks. The food survey had found an average intake of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids respectively of 52.5%, 32% and 15.7%. Regarding the food survey, 39.7% of the women had an excessive intake of carbohydrates, 46% had an excessive intake of lipids and 30.2% had a reduced intake of proteins. Daily fiber intake was decreased in 55.6% of women participating in the survey. An iron deficiency was found in the daily food intake in 92% of women. Vitamin D intake was decreased in 96.8% of the population surveyed with calcium intake decreased in 52.4% of cases. The w6/w3 ratio was increased in 79.4% of the women and 84% of the participants had a decreased zinc intake.

Conclusion

Nutritional education targeting the general population should be established in order to limit the consequences of these multiple nutritional deficiencies.