. 2019 Oct 4;16(19):3735. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16193735

Table 3.

Component score and total score for Healthy Eating Index for Malaysians (HEI) by trimester of pregnancy.

Variables	Possible Range of Score	1st Trimester	2nd Trimester	3rd Trimester	F	p-Value	p-Value for Trend
Variables	Possible Range of Score	Mean ± SE			F	p-Value	p-Value for Trend
HEI component
Cereals and grains	0 to 10	8.54 ± 0.09 ^a,b	9.37 ± 0.09 ^a,c	7.53 ± 0.09 ^b,c	97.63	0.001 *	0.001 *
Vegetables	0 to 10	3.03 ± 0.14 ^a,b	4.20 ± 0.14 ^a	4.14 ± 0.14 ^b	21.75	0.001 *	0.001 *
Fruits	0 to 10	3.43 ± 0.18	4.00 ± 0.18	3.67 ± 0.18	2.55	0.07	0.35
Poultry, meat and egg	0 to 10	8.48 ± 0.14 ^b	8.55 ± 0.14 ^c	7.52 ± 0.14 ^b,c	16.06	0.001 *	0.001 *
Fish and seafood	0 to 10	5.83 ± 0.20 ^a	6.84 ± 0.20 ^a,c	5.93 ± 0.20 ^c	7.60	0.001 *	0.72
Legumes	0 to 10	2.20 ± 0.17 ^a,b	1.04 ± 0.16 ^a,c	3.14 ± 0.17 ^b,c	40.96	0.001 *	0.001 *
Milk and milk products	0 to 10	1.96 ± 0.15 ^a,b	3.82 ± 0.15 ^a,c	2.73 ± 0.15 ^b,c	38.78	0.001 *	0.001 *
% of energy from total fat	0 to 10	5.37 ± 0.21 ^b	5.59 ± 0.21 ^b	4.68 ± 0.21 ^b,c	5.23	0.01 *	0.02 *
Sodium	0 to 10	8.61 ± 0.14 ^a,b	7.04 ± 0.14 ^a,c	7.77 ± 0.14 ^b,c	31.57	0.001 *	0.001 *
Total HEI	0 to 100	52.73 ± 0.52 ^a	56.10 ± 0.52 ^a,c	52.76 ± 0.52 ^c	14.01	0.001 *	0.001 *

Adjusted by age, years of education, parity, total GWG, physical activity level (MET-hours/week) and pre-pregnancy BMI. Means with similar superscripts in the same row indicate a significant difference (p < 0.05): ^a first trimester vs. second trimester; ^b first trimester vs. third trimester; ^c second trimester vs. third trimester. * p < 0.05.