Dietary Practice and Nutritional Status Among Pregnant Women

Abstract

Background: Appropriate balanced maternal nutrition is the principal determinant for maternal and fetal wellbeing. Consequently, the dietary practice and nutritional status of pregnant ladies need to be addressed properly as it should follow the recommendations of the food pyramid. Objective: to assess dietary practice and nutritional status among pregnant women attending antenatal Care In the rural Family Health Unit. Methods: The study was a Facility-based cross-sectional study conducted in the Terrene family health unit, Gharbia Governorate on 350 pregnant ladies chosen by a simple random sample. Data were collected via face-to-face interviews using semi-structured questionnaires. Analyses were done using the statistical package of social science (SPSS version 20). Results: In the current study the mean age of the enrolled pregnant women was about 24-year-old (Rang16-49 years old). Above two-thirty of them (65.14%) eat three times per day. Most of the studied pregnant women (73.43%) had varied favorite foods. About (46.57%) of them use animal fats for cooking. Most of them (72.57%) add average salt to their food. But (88.86%) of them prefer diverse foods. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age, women education, occupation, getting medical service, socio-economic status, previous delivery, presence of sickness, hemoglobin level, and daily meals frequency were significant predictors to nutritional status among pregnant women attending antenatal. Conclusion: The present study revealed that there is a burden of suboptimal dietary practice and undernutrition among these studied participants especially for low-income women.