Factors Influencing Dietary Patterns during Pregnancy in a Culturally Diverse Society Fernández Gómez, Elisabet Luque Vara, Trinidad Moya Fernández, Pablo José López Olivares, María Gallardo Vigil, Miguel Ángel Enrique Mirón, Carmen Dietary patterns Pregnancy Sociodemographic factors Pregnancy-related factors Lifestyles Factor loadings The aim of this study was to identify dietary patterns in pregnant women and to assess the relationships between sociodemographic, lifestyle-related, and pregnancy-related factors. This is a descriptive, correlational study involving 306 pregnant women in Melilla (Spain) in any trimester of pregnancy. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used. Dietary patterns were determined via exploratory factor analysis and ordinal logistic regression using the proportional odds model. Three dietary patterns were identified: Western, mixed, and prudent. Sociodemographic, lifestyle-related, and pregnancy-related factors influencing dietary quality were established. The Western dietary pattern was considered the least recommended despite being the most common among women who live in Melilla (p = 0.03), are Christian (p = 0.01), are primiparous women (p < 0.001), and are in their first or second trimester (p = 0.02). Unemployed pregnant women were also more likely to have a less healthy dietary pattern ( = -0.716; p = 0.040). The prudent dietary pattern, the healthiest of the three, was most commonly observed among Muslim women (p = 0.01), women with more than two children (p < 0.001), and women in the third trimester of pregnancy (p = 0.02). Pregnant women who engaged in no physical activity or a low level of physical activity displayed a mixed pattern (p < 0.001). This study provides evidence on the factors influencing dietary patterns during pregnancy and suggests that more specific nutrition programmes should be developed to improve the nutritional status of pregnant women. 2021-01-27T11:00:21Z 2021-01-27T11:00:21Z 2020-10-23 journal article Fernández-Gómez, E., Luque-Vara, T., Moya-Fernández, P. J., López-Olivares, M., Gallardo-Vigil, M. Á., & Enrique-Mirón, C. (2020). Factors Influencing dietary patterns during pregnancy in a culturally diverse society. Nutrients, 12(11), 3242. [doi:10.3390/nu12113242] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/66063 10.3390/nu12113242 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ open access Atribución 3.0 España Mdpi