Dietary Behavior of Pregnant and Lactating Women of Bandarban Hill District, Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is the least developed in all aspects of life and livelihoods in comparison with other parts of Bangladesh. People of this area suffer from extreme poverty due to different natural and man-made disasters resulting in increasing vulnerability, food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly for women, youth and children. In CHT, Bandarban district has a high proportion of people living in extreme poverty, combined with high rates of stunting, under-nutrition and food insecurity along with maternal under-nutrition, low birth weight, preterm birth, maternal anemia. The dietary behavior of the people living here is a major factor of these nutritional disasters. Thus, this study was conducted to assess the dietary behavior of selected pregnant/lactating women from different sub-districts of Bandarban hill district. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted from September 2018 to December 2018 at Lama & Rowangchori sub-districts of Bandarban hill district with participation of 126 pregnant women and lactating mothers. For the study, those were selected who were in their early pregnancy or lactation stage by simple random sampling. Findings: The study findings show that 34% respondents consume 3 or less food groups, 29% respondents consume 4 food groups, 25% respondents consume 5 food groups, 7% respondents consume 6 food groups and 5% respondents consume 7 or more food groups. The study also found significant relationship among the dietary diversity with the respondent’s income, household size and the level of education of the respondents. Conclusion: As dietary behavior is a major factor to trigger good nutritional status, thus it can be concluded that awareness and nutrition education programme implementation in the Bandarban hill district area can help to achieve favorable dietary behavior of the pregnant and lactating women as well as good nutritional status.