ABSTRACT

Dietary habit and weight gain during pregnancy are the two main modifiable factors influencing maternal and infant outcomes. The study was carried out to determine the food habits, dietary practices and anthropometric status of adolescent pregnant girls in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State. The study was descriptive and cross-sectional in design. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 170 respondents. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, obstetric characteristics, feeding habits, dietary practices, and anthropometric status of the respondents were collected using structured and validated questionnaire. The IBM SPSS version 23.0 computer programme was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics were computed for the continuous and categorized variables. Pearson correlation was used to analyze the relationship between dietary habits, dietary practices and anthropometric status of the pregnant girls which P judged at 0.05. Result from the study showed that more than half (96.5%) of the adolescent pregnant women were married while majority of them were Christians (96.5%), students and earned less than N 19,000 in a month (96.5%). Half (50.0%) of the women were in their second trimester, majority (60.6%) had given birth less than 2 times while only few (10%) had experienced miscarriage. However, majority (52.9%) of them consumed meals thrice daily while 30% skip their meals. More than half (52.9%) of the respondents consumed snacks while some (49.4%) mostly avoid meat. Majority of the respondents consumed fruits (96.5%) and vegpassGiven les (100%). Additionally, most (77.1%) of the respondents take dietary supplements. Slightly more than half (50.6%) of them mostly take only calcium supplements while 26.5% take multivitamin. Some (22.9%) of the women started consuming these supplements in their first trimester. Majority (94.7%) of the respondents were below the recommended weight gain by the Institute of Medicine. Result also revealed that there was no significant relationship between dietary supplement intake and anthropometric status of the respondents and selected dietary variables. Maternal age and dietary practices during pregnancy have a significant impact on the birth outcomes. There is need for a differentiated maternal and prenatal care to pregnant adolescents. Given that adolescent mothers pass through two phases of development simultaneously, adequate health measures are needed in order to prevent risks health and life, promote and maintain health and well-being of both mother and child.