Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Tigray, Ethiopia.
PLoS One. 2020 Oct 13;15(10):e0239451. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239451. eCollection 2020.
Most communities, rural or urban, have taboos regarding foods to avoid during pregnancy, and most have local explanations for why certain foods should be avoided. Such taboos may have health benefits, but they also can have large nutritional and health costs to mothers and fetuses. As such, understanding local pregnancy food taboos is an important public health goal, especially in contexts where food resources are limited. Despite this, information regarding food taboos is limited in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study assessed food taboos, related misconceptions, and associated factors among pregnant women in Northern Ethiopia.
A cross-sectional study of 332 pregnant women in antenatal care (ANC) follow-up at selected private clinics in Mekelle city, Tigray, Ethiopa, recruited between April and May, 2017. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, we assessed whether respondents' observed food taboos, what types of foods they avoided, their perceived reasons for avoidance, diversity of respondents' diets during pregnancy, and respondents' socio-demographic characteristics. After reporting frequency statistics for categorical variables and central tendencies (mean and standard deviation) of continuous variables, bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify the socio-demographic factors and diet diversity associated with food taboo practices.
Around 12% of the pregnant women avoided at least one type of food during their current pregnancy for one or more reasons. These mothers avoided eating items such as yogurt, banana, legumes, honey, and "kollo" (roasted barley and wheat). The most common reasons given for the avoidances were that the foods were (mistakenly) believed to cause: abortion; abdominal cramps in the mother and newborn; prolonged labor; or coating of the fetus's body. Maternal education (diploma and above) (AOR: 4.55, 95% CI: 1.93, 10.31) and marital status (single) were found to be negatively associated (protective factors) with observances of pregnancy food taboos. Approximately 79% of respondents had pregnancy diets that were insufficiently diverse, although we did not find any statistical evidence that this was associated with adhering to food taboos.
The misconceptions related to pregnancy food taboos should be discouraged insofar as they may restrict women's consumption of nutritious foods which could support maternal health and healthy fetal development. Health providers should counsel pregnant women and their husbands about appropriate pregnancy nutrition during ANC visits.
大多数农村或城市社区都存在关于孕期禁食食物的禁忌，而且大多数禁忌都有当地的解释，说明为什么某些食物应该避免。这些禁忌可能对健康有益，但也会给母亲和胎儿带来巨大的营养和健康成本。因此，了解当地的孕期禁食食物是一个重要的公共卫生目标，尤其是在食物资源有限的情况下。尽管如此，在埃塞俄比亚，关于禁食食物的信息仍然有限。因此，本研究评估了在提格雷州梅开勒市选定的私人诊所接受产前保健（ANC）随访的 332 名孕妇的禁食食物、相关误解和相关因素。
这是一项横断面研究，于 2017 年 4 月至 5 月在埃塞俄比亚提格雷州梅开勒市的选定私人诊所招募了 332 名正在接受 ANC 随访的孕妇。我们使用半结构式问卷，评估了受访者是否观察到食物禁忌、他们避免食用哪些食物、他们认为避免的原因、受访者在怀孕期间的饮食多样性以及受访者的社会人口统计学特征。在报告了分类变量的频率统计数据和连续变量的中心趋势（平均值和标准差）后，我们进行了单变量和多变量逻辑回归分析，以确定与禁食食物实践相关的社会人口统计学因素和饮食多样性。
大约 12%的孕妇在当前孕期出于一个或多个原因避免食用至少一种食物。这些母亲避免食用酸奶、香蕉、豆类、蜂蜜和“kollo”（烤大麦和小麦）等食物。避免食用的最常见原因是这些食物被错误地认为会导致：流产；母亲和新生儿的腹痛；产程延长；或胎儿身体被覆盖。研究发现，母亲的教育程度（文凭及以上）（AOR：4.55，95%CI：1.93，10.31）和婚姻状况（单身）与遵守孕期禁食食物禁忌呈负相关（保护因素）。大约 79%的受访者的孕期饮食不够多样化，尽管我们没有发现任何统计证据表明这与遵守食物禁忌有关。
与孕期禁食食物相关的误解应该被劝阻，因为它们可能限制妇女食用营养丰富的食物，而这些食物可以支持产妇健康和胎儿健康发育。在 ANC 就诊期间，卫生保健提供者应向孕妇及其丈夫提供关于适当孕期营养的咨询。
