Abstract:
Background: Poor dietary practice is a significant public health burden worldwide. The incidence of dietary inadequacies because of dietary habits is higher during pregnancy when compared to any other stage of the life cycle. The majority of Ethiopian pregnant women have inappropriate nutrient intakes due to their poor dietary practices. Different policies and strategies has established to overcome problems associated with poor dietary practice but there are still existing gap, many mothers are continue to follow suboptimal habits.
Objective: To assess the dietary practices and associated factors among pregnant women visiting St. Luke Hospital for ANC, Southwest Shoa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2023.
Method: Institutional based cross sectional study was conducted on 424 pregnant women attending antenatal care in St. Luke Hospital, Southwest Shoa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia 2023. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. The data was collected using a structured and pre-tested interviewer guided questionnaires. The descriptive analysis such as proportions, percentages, frequency distribution, mean and standard deviation were done. Binary logistic regressions were used to see the association between the dependent and independent variable. A variable with <0.25 in bivariable logistic regression were candidates for multivariable logistic regression. In multivariable logistic regression variable with a p-value < 0.05 was used to declare the presence of a statistically significant association between the dependent and independent variables. Adjusted odds ratio with its 95% confidence interval was used to measure strength of association.
Result: The good dietary practice of pregnant women in the study area was 27.6% (95%CI: 23.8-31.2%). Maternal education, maternal occupation, and nutritional information was sstatistically associated with good dietary practices of women in the multivariable binary logistic regression. Pregnant women with college and above secondary school were 2.05 and 1.95 times more likely to had good dietary practice compared with no formal education (AOR: 2.05,95% CI: (1.31-4.45)and (AOR : 1.95, 95% CI: (1.19-2.96)) respectively. Maternal occupation had 3.42 times more likely to have good dietary practice compared to house wives women (AOR : 3.42, 95% CI: (2.71-6.39)). Pregnant women who had nutritional information were 3.39 times more likely to have good dietary practices than those who had no nutritional information (AOR: 3.39; 95% CI, (1.59 –7.25)).
Conclusions and recommendation: The over all appropriate dietary practice was low in the study compared to others study which is 27.6%. Educational status of pregnant women, women occupation and information about nutrition was associated with dietary practice of pregnant women.
The governmental body and private sectors better to focus on promotion programs and the need of appropriate dietary intake during pregnancy
