Attitude of Pregnant Women Attending Ante-natal Clinic towards Adequate Diet in the Prevention of Anaemia in Selected Hospitals in Osogbo

Aims/Objectives: To assess the attitudes of pregnant women based on their knowledge about anaemia and adequate diet in its prevention.

Study Design: Descriptive.

Place and Duration of Study: The ante-natal clinics: Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Osogbo and Osun State Teaching Hospital, Asubiaro, Nigeria between January and August 2014.

Methodology: A sample size of 369 was gotten by using Fisher’s rule of thumb. A multi stage sampling technique was utilized. Subjects were chosen from 2 different hospitals in Osogbo. Equal numbers of questionnaires were distributed to the respondents in each hospital. In all, 60 single pregnant women and 309 married pregnant women participated.

Results: Chi-square was used to test two null hypotheses, one was accepted thus the hypothesis restated as there exist a significant difference in knowledge among pregnant women that do believe that anaemia could be cured with drugs alone and those that do not while the other null hypothesis was rejected and confirmed there is no significant difference between perceived income and attitudes about an adequate diet and prevention of anaemia.

Conclusion: Most of the respondents displayed a moderate level of knowledge on anaemia in pregnancy and adequate diet in its prevention. However, this didn’t affect their attitude and level of compliance towards adequate nutrition. Although antenatal care programs distribute iron supplements to pregnant women yet its effectiveness is not well felt. This means that there may be other socioeconomic factors responsible for this non-compliance; further work is therefore needed to validate this. It was suggested that In order to get better compliance, both gynaecologists and midwives should emphasize the importance of taking adequate diet before, during and after pregnancy. Anaemia prevention should be emphasized in the community in order to encourage dietary modifications and promote environmental control of infections contributing to anaemia. This needed to be carried out on a continuous basis and integrated with other on-going.