Pregnancy, nutrition and parasitic infection of rural and urban women in Northeast Thailand

Abstract

Outcome of pregnancy as well as nutritional status and intake, haemoglobin, albumin and parasitic infection rate of pregnant women from the villages and of women in a high socio-economic class from the urban sector in Northeast Thailand were investigated. Females in the rural areas get pregnant at a younger age. Generally, the nutritional status of urban women is better than that of their rural counterparts. Differences in haemoglobin between the groups could only be observed at the onset of pregnancy because pregnant rural women were treated frequently with iron tablets. No difference in the albumin level could be observed between groups. Total energy intake was the same in both groups but higher intakes of fat, protein, vitamins and trace elements were found in the group of urban women. Liver fluke infection was associated with lower maternal weight gain in the rural women. 52.3% of the women in the villages had insufficient maternal weight gains below 7 kg, as compared to only 11.5% of the urban women. 15.8% of the babies delivered by the village women and 5.4% by the urban women had low birth weights. In the rural women, the risk of delivering low birth weight babies was more than 3, and of insufficient weight gain, more than 6 times higher than in the urban women.