ResearchOriginal ResearchWomen’s Experience and Understanding of Food Cravings in Pregnancy: A Qualitative Study in Women Receiving Prenatal Care at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
Section snippets
Participants
Focus group participants were a subsample of participants of the Pregnancy Eating Attributes Study (PEAS), an observational, prospective cohort study examining the associations of food reward sensitivity with pregnancy-related diet and weight change.29 PEAS participants were recruited from the obstetrics clinics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Healthcare System. Details on enrollment and recruitment of PEAS are described elsewhere.29 Eligibility criteria included: gestational
Results
The Table describes the demographics of the focus group sample in comparison with the main study population. The majority of focus group participants were non-Hispanic white and had a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Discussion
In focus group discussions, pregnant women described cravings as highly salient experiences that they associate with their own eating behaviors and emotional experiences. They described cravings as urgent, food-specific, all-consuming occurrences that were differentiated from hunger. Consistent with previous findings,16,21 common types of foods craved by this sample of Western women were sweets such as chocolate and ice cream or salty foods like chips.1 Women discussed their beliefs surrounding
Conclusion
Pregnant women reported food cravings as a common and psychologically salient aspect of their pregnancy. They indicated using a variety of cognitive and behavioral strategies to manage these cravings, including acceptance. An understanding of the emotional precursors and responses to food cravings may assist with the development of interventions to improve eating behaviors and reduce eating-related distress during pregnancy.
L. E. Blau is an intramural research fellow, Health Behavior Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Rockville, MD.
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2021, AppetiteCitation Excerpt :Coding was modified on an as-needed basis to incorporate any emerging constructs identified during this phase of analysis. The initial process is described by Blau et al. (2020), and the present work was a secondary analysis of the resultant themes. For the present study, coding scheme elements were reviewed to identify elements that may relate to stress or to motivation for healthful eating, and data coded to these elements were summarized and illustrated with representative examples or quotes.
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L. E. Blau is an intramural research fellow, Health Behavior Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Rockville, MD.
K. W. Dempster is an intramural research fellow, Health Behavior Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Rockville, MD.
L. M. Lipsky is a staff scientist, Health Behavior Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Rockville, MD.
T. R. Nansel is a senior investigator, Health Behavior Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Rockville, MD.
M. H. Eisenberg Colman is a senior researcher, Fors Marsh Group, Arlington, VA; at the time of the study, she was a postdoctoral fellow, Health Behavior Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Rockville, MD.
A. M. Siega-Riz is dean and professor, Department of Nutrition and Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
M. S. Faith is chair and professor, Department of Counseling, School, and Educational Psychology, Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo–The State University of New York.
STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
FUNDING/SUPPORT This research was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Intramural Research Program (contract #HHSN275201300015C and #HHSN275201300026I/HHSN27500002).
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS T. R. Nansel, M. S. Faith, A. M. Siega-Riz, and L. M. Lipsky conceived of the study and developed the research design. L. E. Blau, L. M. Lipsky, K. W. Dempster, M. H. Eisenberg Colman, and T. R. Nansel were involved in the analysis of data. L. E. Blau, L. M. Lipsky, and T. R. Nansel were involved in the writing of the manuscript. All authors approve of the submission of the manuscript in its current form.