Background: Food insecurity (FI) occurs when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food. FI has been associated with negative effects on human health, including during the prenatal and neonatal periods. The objective of this study is to evaluate the consequences of FI for pregnant women's and newborns' health. Methods: A literature search was performed with three independent researchers based on the PRISMA guidelines; the search covered the period of November 2008 to July 2019 and was conducted in the following databases: the

Background Inadequate gestational weight gain (GWG) is associated with adverse outcomes in maternal and child health and can be enhanced by social inequalities, such as lower education and household food insecurity (HFI). Women are more vulnerable to HFI, which has been associated with negative health effects for pregnant women during the prenatal and puerperal periods, particularly in regard to the aggravation of pregnancy risks. This study investigated the association between sociodemographic characteristics and HFI with respect to adequacy of total GWG among women with high-risk pregnancies. Methods This was a prospective cohort study that evaluated the total GWG of 169 pregnant women. The women were seen at a public university hospital in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Their sociodemographic and gestational characteristics and the Brazilian Scale of Domestic Food Insecurity were investigated. To estimate the total GWG, the difference between the patient weight at the last prenatal visit and the initial patient weight was verified, with both collected from the medical records of the pregnant women. The classification of the total GWG considered the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) (2009). A multinomial logistic regression model assessed the risk (odds ratio; OR) and confidence intervals (CI 95%)) of insufficient and excessive GWG with exposure to HFI and other covariates (p value <0.05). Results Insufficient and excessive GWG were observed in 27.8% and 47.9% of the pregnant women, respectively. More than half of the women (74.6%) had a high education level. Exposure to mild HFI occurred in 44.2% of the women. After adjustment, the HFI was not associated with insufficient or excessive GWG. The educational level of women was the only variable significantly associated with a lower risk of GWG insufficiency (OR: 0.10; 95% CI: 0.01–0.89). Conclusions In this population, higher maternal education was a protective factor against insufficient GWG. We highlight the importance of additional health support and counseling for women in the most vulnerable social conditions, considering the importance of access to information for reducing health risks.

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Food insecurity (FI) and low social support (SS) can be associated with adverse neonatal health conditions, including weaning at very early stages. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between FI and low SS in high-risk pregnant women with breastfeeding (BF) at birth. To achieve this goal, between 2017 and 2020, 142 pregnant women at clinical risk and her newborns, at a reference university hospital in the state of Rio de Janeiro were evaluated. In the first prenatal care visit, the household FI ​​situation was measured with the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale (BFIS) and SS was measured with the Social Support Scale of the Medical Outcomes Study (USA). In addition, sociodemographic and pregnancy-related data and the presence or absence of breastfeeding (BF) on the first day of birth were investigated. To verify the relationship between FI, SS and BF, logistic regression models were used, and the odds ratio (OR) and respective confidence interval (95% CI) were estimated. Those associations with a p value less than 0.05 in the adjusted model were considered significant. A total of 57.1% of pregnant women were found to have FI, and the highest average score of social support was related to the dimension (89.8%). Most newborns received BF together with industrialized formula (46%). FI (OR = 7.1; 95% CI: 1.3–27.7), the existence of disease prior to pregnancy (OR = 6.8; 95% CI: 1.2–28.6), alcohol consumption during pregnancy (OR = 13.9; 95% CI: 1.3–29.5) and newborn respiratory diseases (OR = 25.8; 95% CI: 3.9–50.8) increased the chance for the absence of breast milk consumption at birth. Based on these results, strategies for FI reduction, such as improving conditions of early access to prenatal care to improve gestational health conditions that interfere with breastfeeding, are recommended.

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