An Investigation into Socio-Economic Factors Explaining Dietary Intake in Pregnant Women: A Study in Urban Areas of District Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The present study was aimed to assess the dietary intake in pregnant women aged 18-45 year. A sample of 200 respondents was selected through simple random sampling technique from four urban areas of District Faisalabad and 50 respondents were selected randomly from each area. A well structured interviewing schedule was utilized to collect the data. Analysis was conducted through Descriptive and Bi-variate methods and Gamma and chi-square tests were applied to examine the relationship between variables. Maximum numbers of respondents were of age up to 30 years and 12 years schooling was reported by about 42.5% respondents. Huge majority 77.5% of the respondents were taking balance diet during pregnancy, 40.0% of the respondent suffered in anemia and 85.0% of the respondents were using multi vitamins during pregnancy. Strategies and policies to enhance women education to make them independent in socio-economic and cultural decisions are required to have profound impact on their health. Public health awareness campaigns are required to be launched to make people aware about the benefits of small family, prenatal and postnatal care in the form of better food provision and vitamins and utilization of health facilities in the context of women general reproductive health.