A systematic review was carried out of national and international literature on the available knowledge regarding nutritional assessment methods for anthropometric evaluation during pregnancy and its association with obstetric outcomes among Brazilian women was confirmed. Tracking resulted in 26 studies, where the most commonly used weight-gain assessment method was that proposed by Rosso (1985). Some of these used only pregestational nutritional status Institute of Medicine (1990) or weight gain during pregnancy assessments of World Health Organization (1995). The results indicate the lack of appropriate methods for assessing nutrition during pregnancy, which reflects the low importance prenatal services give to the standardization of anthropomorphic evaluation during pregnancy. There is an urgent need for well-defined methodological studies involving pregnant women that address age differences and intervening factors. Most researchers consider birth weight to be the main outcome of nutritional assessment during gestation to validate anthropometric methods. Outcomes encountered in this study demonstrate a lack of information, both quantitative and qualitative, to evaluate the effectiveness of nutritional assessment methods among pregnant Brazilian women. The development of studies using a rigorous methodology in this field is essential and these should address differences in terms of age and biological, socioeconomic and environmental factors.
Pregnant women; Nutritional status; Nutrition assessment; Athropometriy; Pregnant outcome
