Nutrition Knowledge and Practice among Pregnant Women in Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area, Enugu State

Abstract

Objective: The study assessed nutrition knowledge and practice among pregnant women in Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area, Enugu State.
Methods: Cross-sectional survey design and multistage sampling technique was used to select respondents. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on the socio-demographic characteristics, dietary knowledge and practices of the respondents. A total of 159 respondents completed the study. Descriptive statistics was used to present the result. Chi-Square was used to test the association between the categorical variables. Pearson correlation was used to correlate numerical variables. Significance level was accepted at p < 0.05.
Results: A total of 12.0% were adolescents (10-19 years old). Nutrition knowledge assessment showed that 45.2% were knowledgeable on pregnancy nutrition. Dietary practices showed that 40.9% of the subjects ate three meals daily, 81.1% ate pastries, 61% took soft drinks, 15.1% took hot drinks (alcohol), 81% do not take stout and 70.4% do not eat bitter cola. About 62.3% of the subject had food aversion while about 37% had food related cultural taboos. Some (45.3%) of the respondents had a high dietary diversity while 43.4% and 3.1% had a medium and low dietary diversity respectively. Significant association (p = 0.025) was found between dietary diversity and gestational age of the respondents.
Conclusion: Nutrition knowledge of the pregnant women is poor but had no significant effect on the dietary practices of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area, Enugu state.

Keywords: Maternal Nutrition, Nutrition Knowledge, Practices, Pregnancy