Nutritional Attitude of Pregnant Women

An Issue in Health Promotion

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the Nutritional Attitude of Pregnant Women: an issue in health promotion. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The population for the study consisted of 3,600 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in Nsukka Health District, Enugu State Nigeria while the multi-stage procedure was used to draw a sample of 360 pregnant women for the study. A self-developed questionnaire was the instrument used for the data collection. The direct approach was used to administer the questionnaire with the help of two research assistants who were thoroughly briefed. The research questions were answered using means and percentages while the null hypotheses were tested using the ANOVA at 0.5 level of significance. The following results were obtained; pregnant women aged 15-20 (x=2.74), 21-50 (x=2.61) and 31-40 (x=2.62) years had positive nutritional attitude while those aged 41-49 years (x=2.49) had negative nutritional attitude. Pregnant women with primary(x=2.66), secondary (x=2.63) and tertiary (x=2.51), education possessed positive nutritional attitude while those with non-formal education (x=2.44) possessed a negative nutritional attitude. The mean nutritional attitude of pregnant women differed according to age (p-value=.000), level of education (p-value=.000). Based on the findings and conclusions, the researcher recommended that the State Government in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, Information and Women Affairs, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and churches should embark on sensitization workshop and public enlightenment campaigns in the area of Nutrition education both in schools and the general public.