A Survey of the Use of Nutritional Supplements in 7931 Women in Early Pregnancy

  Objective  To evaluate the use status and influencing factors of nutrition supplements among early pregnant women in China.

  Methods  Data was from the Concorde project of the Chinese Pregnant Women Cohort study (CPWCS). The project recruited pregnant women in the first trimester of pregnancy from July 25th, 2017 to July 24th, 2018. An online questionnaire was used to investigate the use of nutritional supplements in pregnant women, including whether they used supplements and the types of supplements used. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of the use of various nutritional supplements.

  Results  A total of 7931 pregnant women who met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The number of pregnant women using nutrient supplements was 7431, the utilization rates of various nutrient supplements from high to low were folic acid (88.7%, 7034/7931), multivitamin (43.5%, 3451/7931), calcium (29.0%, 2297/7931), vitamin D (23.8%, 1891/7931), probiotics (22.4%, 1778/7931), iron(21.9%, 1739/7931), dietary fiber (18.9%, 1497/7931) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (17.0%, 1350/7931). The number of pregnant women who used two or more nutrient supplements was the highest (60.0%, 4678/7931), followed by who used one nutrient supplement (34.7%, 2753/7931) and who did not use any nutrient supplement (6.3%, 500/7931). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the age of pregnant women and the educational level of pregnant women and their spouse were the main factors influencing the use of nutrient supplements.

  Conclusions  The use of nutrient supplements is universal among early pregnant women; folic acid and multivitamin are the main types. But the phenomenon of using multiple nutrient supplements at the same time exists. Socioeconomic status survey of pregnant women and their spouses were related to the use of nutrient supplements.