What is the question?

• The question is: What is the relationship between the frequency of eating during pregnancy and gestational weight gain?

What is the answer to the question?

• No evidence is available to determine the relationship between the frequency of eating during pregnancy and gestational weight gain.

Why was this question asked?

• This important public health question was identified by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) to be examined by the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.

How was this question answered?

• The 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, Frequency of Eating Subcommittee conducted a systematic review to answer this question with support from the Nutrition Evidence Systematic Review (NESR) team.
• Frequency of eating was defined as the number of daily eating occasions. 
• Gestational weight gain was defined as weight a woman gains during pregnancy.

What is the population of interest? 

• The population of interest was women during pregnancy who were healthy and/or at risk of chronic disease.  

What evidence was found? 

• This review identified 0 studies that met the inclusion criteria. 

How up-to-date is this systematic review?

• This review searched for studies from January, 2000 to September, 2019.

Background 

• This important public health question was identified by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) to be examined by the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.
• The 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, Frequency of Eating Subcommittee conducted a systematic review to answer this question with support from the Nutrition Evidence Systematic Review (NESR) team.
• The goal of this systematic review was to examine the following question: What is the relationship between the frequency of eating during pregnancy and gestational weight gain?

Conclusion statement and grade

• No evidence is available to determine the relationship between the frequency of eating during pregnancy and gestational weight gain. (Grade: Grade not assignable)

Methods 

• A literature search was conducted using 4 databases (PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, and CINAHL) to identify articles that evaluated an intervention or exposure of the frequency of eating and the outcome of gestational weight gain. A manual search was also conducted to identify articles that may not have been included in the electronic databases searched. Articles were screened by two authors independently for inclusion based on pre-determined criteria. 
• Because no articles were identified in the literature search, this systematic review did not involve data extraction, risk of bias assessment, or evidence synthesis. However, a conclusion statement was developed, that acknowledged the absence of evidence to address this question. Since no evidence was available to answer this question, the strength of evidence could not be graded. 

Summary of the evidence

• This systematic review was undertaken to examine the relationship between the frequency of eating during pregnancy and gestational weight gain. 
• Frequency of eating was defined as the number of daily eating occasions. An eating occasion was defined as an ingestive event that is either energy yielding or non-energy yielding.
• Gestational weight gain was defined as weight a woman gains during pregnancy.
• This review identified 0 studies published between January, 2000 and September, 2019 that met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review.