Nutrient intake of pregnant women in Indonesia: a review.

INTRODUCTION Pregnant women are encouraged to comply with dietary recommendations to meet their own nutritional needs as well as their child. Deficiency of certain nutrients may lead to morbidity of both the mother and child. In this review, information on nutrients intake of pregnant women from studies conducted in Indonesia will be analysed. METHODS A literature search of all possible sources of information was conducted. These included (i) electronic databases of PubMed, Elsevier, Science Direct, EBSCO, and Google Scholar; (ii) archives and records of the Ministry of Health; (iii) library collection in institutions such as health polytechnics, local health offices, non-government organisations and universities in Yogyakarta, Central Java, East Java Province; and (iv) articles on pregnant women's nutrient intake conducted in Indonesia in 2000 - 2010. The results were analysed descriptively by comparing them with the Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) value. RESULTS Two of four studies showed mean energy intake below EAR. Protein intake was lower than EAR only in two studies, while four are in contrary to the EAR. No study showed low fat and carbohydrate intake. A large number of studies reported low average intake of calcium and iron. CONCLUSION The reviewed studies suggest that intake of several nutrients by pregnant women in Indonesia is below the EAR.