Abstract:
Background: Maternal undernutrition of macro and micro nutrition deficiencies is a challenging
public health problem worldwide, disproportionately affecting women in low-icome countries.
Pregnant women are more vulnerable to malnutrition. Thus, addressing undernutrition is therefore
a national and global priority and adequate dietary diversity is important during pregnancy to
ensure satisfactory birth outcome and good health for the mother.
Objective: Assessment of the Relationship of Dietary Diversity and Nutritional Status of
Pregnant Women Attending Public Hospitals in Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia from February
5-25/2017.
Methods: Cross sectional hospital based study was carried out in Dire Dawa two public hospitals.
Pregnant women was targeted with the first respondent were selected using simple random sampling
among hospital ANC visitors and thereafter every other client was used until the required sample was
reached. Data was collected using researcher administered questionnaires using 24 hour recall method
& Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) of the left arm of the respondents was measured the
nutritional status of mother. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS and summarized using
descriptive statistics and confounding was controlled by multivariable analysis.
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Result: This study revealed that 57 % had low dietary diversity. Of the participants, 18.2% were
undernourished. Income [AOR=0.48; 95% CI, (0.24-0.95)] and marital status [AOR=3.54; 95%
CI, (1.2-14.8)] was significantly associated with nutritional status. There was relationship between
24 hr dietary diversity and nutritional status of preganat women (AOR= 2.4; 95% CI, (1.06-5.3).
Conclusion: The mean DDS indicated that dietary diversity among the pregnant women was low
as more than half of the respondents had low dietary diversity based on the FAO categorization.
The MUAC data indicated that one out of five pregnant women was malnourished while the rest
have a good nutritional status. There were significant relationships between dietary diversity,
marital status and income with nutritional status of pregnant women..
