ABSTRACT

Pregnancy is a time of tremendous physiological changes that demand healthy dietary and

lifestyle choices. During pregnancy there is increased demand for nutrient and energy by

the mother because of the growing foetus. The purpose of this study was to assess the

nutrition knowledge, attitude and practices of pregnant mothers towards the intake of

dietary supplements in Owerri North Local Government Area, Imo State. This was a cross

sectional study carried out among pregnant mothers who attended antenatal clinic in

Federal Medical Center, Owerri in Owerri North Local Government Area. Data was

collected using self, administered questionnaire. This questionnaire was distributed to one

hundred and eighty-nine randomly selected pregnant mothers attending antenatal clinic in

Federal Medical Center, Owerri. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version

20 was used to analyze the data collected. Pearson's correlation was used to analyze the

relationship between nutritional knowledge and practice of respondents towards the intake

of dietary supplements. The significance level considered was set at the 0.01 level.

Majority (84.8%) and (94.6%) of the respondents were in their reproductive age and were

married, respectively. Majority [(90.8%); 75.0%); 77.8%)] of the respondents had high

literacy level, were business women and had high income level respectively. Some (44.0%)

of the respondents had a good knowledge of dietary supplements, while few [(28.3%);

16.3%); 11.4%)] had an excellent, fair and poor knowledge of dietary supplements,

respectively. Many (64.1%) of the respondents had a positive attitude towards the intake

of dietary supplements, few (34.2%) and (1.6%) had undecided attitude and negative

attitude towards the intake of dietary supplements respectively. Folic acid intake had 87.0%

and ferrous sulphate intake had 67.4%. There was no statistically significant relationship

between nutrition knowledge and the practice of respondents towards the intake of dietary

supplements. (r2=0.01, P=0.177). The knowledge, attitude and practices of pregnant

mothers towards the intake of dietary supplements will help provide nutrients which may

be missing or may not be consumed in sufficient quantities in a person's diet.