[Nutritional care and weight gain in pregnant adolescents: a quantitative and qualitative approach]

This study sought to evaluate the impact of nutritional assistance (intervention) on total gestational weight gain in adolescents and to understand the perceptions of adolescents regarding the intervention. It is a quantitative and qualitative survey using triangulation methods conducted in a public maternity hospital in Rio de Janeiro with 204 adolescents, divided into pre-intervention and intervention groups. The hypothesis of homogeneity of proportions was tested by bivariate and multivariate analysis using Poisson regression with robust variance. The qualitative approach was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 12 adolescents, whose data were submitted to content analysis. The results indicate that the intervention did not have a positive effect on the adequacy of total gestational weight gain. The adolescents perceived the dietary plan as a set of rules incompatible with their conditions as pregnant women. The category "almost every consultation was the same" emerged as a synthesis of the perceptions on the intervention. It was concluded that there is a need to reassess the technical and scientific marker tools of nutritional assistance and turn it into care focused around making shared decisions.