Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Pregnant Women in relation to their Diet at the Reference Health Centre of Commune VI (Bamako, Mali)

Abstract

Introduction: Worldwide, nearly half of all pregnant women suffer from anaemia; 9.8 million of them suffer from night blindness. In the csréf de la commune VI during 2018, 36% of pregnant women were screened for malnourished and out of 10624 live births 660 children had a low birth weight. That’s why we conducted this study to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and dietary practices of pregnant women at the Commune VI Reference Health Centre. Materials and methods: This study, which took place at the csréf de la commune VI from 10 December to 09 January 2019, was mixed (qualitative and quantitative). The objective was to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices of pregnant women in relation to their diet. We used reasoned non-probabilistic sampling. The analyse was made on Epi info, the graphics generated by Excel and the writing made on the Word. Results: The results confirmed that 38% of pregnant women do not know what is recommended as food during pregnancy. They did not know in 54% of cases that the ideal weight gain during pregnancy has real impacts on their health and that of their child. A small proportion of women (10%) know that folate is beneficial in early pregnancy. (With regard to physical activity only 4% continued physical exercise during pregnancy. The majority do not seem to know the risks of toxoplasmosis and listeriosis (12 and 4%) respectively. Four out of nine food groups are usually consumed by pregnant women - cereals 94% of the time. Thirty-six percent of women have a low food diversity score. Conclusion: At the end of our study, major efforts must be made in raising awareness to improve the level of knowledge of pregnant women at the csréf de la commune VI.