The dietary management of women during prenatal period from selected hospitals in Anyigba, Kogi State of Nigeria

Abstract

This study was aimed at determining the dietary management of women during prenatal period. A total of 120 respondents were randomly selected fromDiagnosticHospital,GrimadHospitaland Maria Gorretti hospital, using 40 respondents in each of the hospitals respectively. Questionnaire and oral interview were used for collection of data. Frequency and percentile method were used to calculate the percentages of respondents that obtained adequate dietary management and those that did not during prenatal period, and least square regression were used to measure the relationship between their health status, weight, age educational status, eating habit, income, family size, time meal and marital status frequency. The results showed that, 21.25% of the respondents had proper dietary pattern (adequate dietary management) while 41.25% of the respondents underfed and 37.5% overfed – (improper dietary management). At 1% levels of significance, weight, educational status, family size, and marital status respectively were significant to health status. while age, eating habit, income, weight, education and marital status were positively related to their health status. Family size and time meal time were negatively related to their health status. This means that, these percentages (41.25% and 37.5%) of respondents with improper dietary management stand the risk of becoming under nourished or over nourished that may result from poor dietary management which could be caused by any or all of these factors(weight, age, educational status, family size, marital status, improper eating habit, frequency of meal and income).Thus, appropriate nutritional intervention is required, especially in these areas mentioned above to redress this situation.