Energy, Protein Intake, and Chronic Energy Deficiency in Pregnant Women: A Critical Review

Introduction: The prevalence of pregnant women with Chronic Energy Deficiency (CED) is 14.8%, which is still above the threshold for public health problems for pregnant women at risk of CED. CED is a nutritional problem caused by lack of food intake for a long time, a matter of years. Nutritional intake is a direct cause of malnutrition. Objective: This research aims to review and critique articles that examine the relationship between energy, protein intake and CED in pregnant women, which includes technical studies of writing and research materials. Methods: The design of the research was a critical review of 10 articles related to the relation between energy, protein intake and CED in pregnant women from a database of 7 articles of nationally reputable journals and 3 articles of international reputable journals in the last 10 years. Results: Based on the results of a review of 10 articles, the prevalence of CED in pregnant women ranged from 9.0–44.4%, with energy intake in the less category ranging from 36.7 to 97.6%, while protein intake in the less category ranged from 29.0–73.7%. There is a relation between energy, protein intake and CED as many as 8 articles and 4 articles, respectively. And the results of the multivariate test on 4 articles of energy intake had the most dominant effect on the risk of CED. Conclusion: The results of this critical review indicate that energy and protein intake are related to the incidence of CED in pregnant women, so it is necessary to follow up on planning and implementing programs to prevent and overcome the incidence of CED in pregnant women.