ABSTRACT

Pregnancy is the most crucial nutritionally demanding period of every woman’s life.  Micronutrients are essential in sufficient amounts for a healthy pregnancy and childbirth. increasing the consumption of immune system boosting foods is an important health behaviour during pregnancy. This study assessed the knowledge and consumption of immune boosting foods among pregnant mothers attending antenatal centers in Umuahia metropolis. The study was a cross-sectional study. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 297 pregnant women. Data on socio-demographic/economic characteristics, awareness, knowledge, attitude and consumption of immune system boosting foods were collected using structured and validated questionnaire. The IBM SPSS version 22.0 software  was used to analyze the data. Significant relationship was judged at p ≤ 0.05. Data obtained were described using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyse the relationship between the knowledge, attitude and consumption pattern of immune boosting foods among pregnant mothers. The result from this study revealed that majority (86.5%) of the respondents had a good knowledge towards immune boosting foods. More than half (57.2%) of the respondents also had a positive attitude towards immune boosting foods. Most (68.0%) of the pregnant women consume immune boosting foods and majority (78.5%) of them identified cost as one of the factors affecting the consumption of immune boosting foods. Result also revealed that there was a significant relationship between knowledge and attitude of respondents towards immune boosting foods. There was also a significant relationship between respondents attitude towards immune boosting foods and their consumption of immune boosting foods. Nutritional education should be intensified to empower antenatal mothers to understand the importance of nutrition in pregnancy, a vital determinant for optimal maternal and infant health outcomes.