Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt and at Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences, Jeddah, KSA.
J Prev Med Hyg. 2020 Jul 4;61(2):E186-E193. doi: 10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2020.61.2.1302. eCollection 2020 Jun.
Good maternal nutrition during pregnancy is important to ensure health for both the mother and the foetus. This study aimed to assess nutritional knowledge and behavior among a group of Egyptian pregnant women in addition to identify the factors influencing both their nutritional knowledge and behavior.
This comparative cross sectional study included 300 pregnant women attending the antenatal care clinics in 6 of October University private hospital and El-Hussary primary health care (PHC) unit. The data was collected through a modified nutritional survey that was translated from Spanish to Arabic and revised by language experts for clarity.
Almost all of the women attending the private hospital were university educated while about half of the women attending the PHC unit were graduated from technical education. In general, the level of knowledge about food requirements of both groups was satisfactory good; however, neither of them fulfilled the WHO recommendations of food intake during pregnancy or the optimum number of meals per day. The mean of random blood glucose was higher among the women attending the PHC unit; the BMI, mid arm circumference and subcutaneous fat were higher among the same group as well. In regard to fulfilling the WHO recommended servings per day, only starch and fat items were fulfilled by both groups, whereas the other three items (vegetables, fruits and dairy products) were merely included in the diets of both groups.
Healthy behavior among pregnant women in both group were influenced by their educational level, occupation as well as their pre-gestational BMI. Those were the only three significant predictive factors, where women with higher education showed an active lifestyle. In addition, women starting with normal BMI before pregnancy had better healthy behaviours including the choice of healthy diets.
良好的孕期营养对于母婴健康都非常重要。本研究旨在评估埃及孕妇的营养知识和行为，并确定影响其营养知识和行为的因素。
这是一项比较性的横断面研究，共纳入了 300 名在十月六日大学私立医院和 El-Hussary 初级保健（PHC）单位就诊的孕妇。通过对西班牙语翻译为阿拉伯语并经语言专家修订以确保清晰的改良营养调查收集数据。
私立医院就诊的孕妇几乎都接受过大学教育，而 PHC 单位就诊的孕妇中约有一半接受过技术教育。总体而言，两组孕妇对食物需求的知识水平都令人满意；然而，她们都没有达到世界卫生组织（WHO）对妊娠期间食物摄入和每日最佳进餐次数的建议。在 PHC 单位就诊的孕妇的随机血糖均值较高；该组的 BMI、上臂中部周长和皮下脂肪也较高。在满足 WHO 推荐的每日摄入量方面，只有两组都满足了淀粉和脂肪项目，而其他三个项目（蔬菜、水果和奶制品）仅在两组孕妇的饮食中有所包含。
两组孕妇的健康行为都受到其教育水平、职业以及孕前 BMI 的影响。这是仅有的三个具有显著预测意义的因素，其中接受更高教育的孕妇表现出积极的生活方式。此外，孕前 BMI 正常的孕妇更倾向于选择健康的饮食，从而拥有更好的健康行为。
