Nutritional management and interventions in complications of pregnancy: A systematic review

The Impact of Stress and Social Determinants on Diet in Cardiovascular Prevention in Young Women

The prevention of cardiovascular diseases is a fundamental pillar for reducing morbidity and mortality caused by non-communicable diseases. Social determinants, such as socioeconomic status, education, neighborhood, physical environment, employment, social support networks, and access to health care, play a crucial role in influencing health outcomes and health inequities within populations. Social determinants and stress in women are interconnected factors that can significantly impact women's health and well-being. Pregnancy is a good time to engage young women and introduce them to beneficial behaviors, such as adopting essential life skills, especially diet, and learning stress management techniques. Stress influences diet, and women are more likely to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors such as emotional eating or coping with stress with food. Strong action is needed to improve women's lifestyle starting at a young age considering that this lays the foundation for a lower cardiovascular risk in adults and the elderly. The objective of this review is to examine cardiovascular primary prevention in young healthy women, focusing particularly on unresolved issues and the influence of social determinants, as well as the correlation with stressors and their influence on diet.

Weight Variability, Weight Gain Goals, and Biopsychosocial Factors Among Pregnant Women

This study investigated the pattern of weight variability over 8 weeks and its associations with achieving weight gain goals and five biopsychosocial factors among pregnant women. We conducted a secondary analysis of 117 weeks of data from 16 pregnant women with a body mass index (BMI) ≥25. Weight variability was calculated from the difference of ending and beginning and maximum and minimum weights in a week and percent of each difference from baseline weight. Loess smoother, repeated measures model, and compound symmetric covariance matrix were used for analysis. The variability measure of maximum-minimum weight (overall mean: 2.1 ± 0.4 lbs.) was greater than the ending-beginning weight measure (overall mean: 0.7 ± 0.6 lbs.). Weight variability was negatively associated with achieving weight gain goals but not with biopsychosocial factors. Assessing weight variability is important during pregnancy so that preventive measures or lifestyle counseling can be instituted immediately to prevent excessive weight gain.