Abstract

Background: Maternal under-nutrition is one of the major causes of maternal morbidity and mortality, particularly in the developing countries. Maternal nutrition has direct association with neonatal birth size. It is estimated that 15% to 20% of all births worldwide are Low Birth Weight (LBW) representing more than 20 million births a year.

Method: In this study cross-sectional research design was used to survey 385 pregnant women who were selected purposively from one public and four private Lahore, Pakistan. Participants aged 25-30 years, were enrolled after taking written informed consent. Socio-demographics profiles of the participants including maternal/paternal age and education was recorded through a structured questionnaire. Maternal anthropometric measurements such as weight, height, Body Mass Index (BMI), Mid- Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) and neonatal weight, length, head and chest circumference were measured. Maternal dietary intake was assessed by 24 Hour Recall and Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) was calculated from three days 24 Hour Recall performed. Data was collected from Feb-July 2017. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all the variables. Chi-square test was applied to observe the association between independent and dependent variables. Results were analyzed by using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. The p-value less than 0.05 was taken as significant.

Result: The mean of maternal age was 27.92(±4.033) years and the mean of neonatal birth weight was 3.026(±0.369)kg, length 48.64(±3.543)cm, head circumference 32.46(±1.9747)cm and chest circumference 31.485(±1.947)cm. Head circumference of the neonate was significantly associated with dietary diversity (p-value 0.001) whereas neonatal chest circumference, length and birth weight was not associated with dietary diversity (p-value >0.05).

Conclusion: It was concluded that increased maternal education, paternal age, paternal education and income resulted in high dietary diversity. Furthermore, dietary diversity was found to be associated with head circumference of the neonates, while dietary diversity was not linked with other neonatal characteristics.

Keywords: Food intake; Pregnancy; Dietary diversity scores (DDS); Low birth weight (LBW); Birth size