##article.abstract##
Background: Dietary intake and diversity is an
important measure of nutrient adequacy in pregnancy.
However, not much is reported on dietary diversity
and intake among pregnant women in Nigeria.
Objective: To determine dietary intake and diversity
among pregnant women in Degema, Rivers State,
Nigeria.
Methods: Convenience sampling technique was used
to select 150 respondents among pregnant women
attending antenatal clinic from October 2, 2019 to
October 21, 2019 in three selected primary health
centres in Degema. Structured questionnaire was
used to collect data and hypotheses were tested at
0.05 level of significance.
Result: The mean age of the respondents was
30.93±1.27 years, 50.0% had attained secondary
education, 27.1% had tertiary education, 34.3% were
married, 26.4% were cohabiting. Self-employment
(36.4%) and civil service (25.7%) were the major
sources of livelihood of the respondents. More than half
(54.3%) of the respondents earned ¦ 30,000 or less
monthly. The average number of children for each
woman was 3.01±1.86 with about half of them having
between 3 and 5 children. The mean dietary diversity
score was 5.33±1.74. A greater number (69.3%)
attained the minimum dietary diversity score indicating
that the dietary diversity of the respondents was high
and adequate. Educational attainment significantly
influenced dietary diversity of the respondents (χ2= 9.827,
p= 0.020) in the study area. In addition, daily meal
frequency (x2=10.097, p= 0.018), daily adequate meal
(x2=3.611, p= 0.050) and daily adequate fish/meat
consumption (x2= 4.660, p= 0.031) significantly
influenced dietary diversity of the respondents.
Conclusion: The study strongly suggests that
educational status, daily meal frequency, daily
adequate meal and consumption of fish/meat
influenced dietary diversity among pregnant women
in Degema, Rivers State. A collective effort should
be made to enhance the dietary diversity of pregnant
women through the promotion of female education
and nutritional counselling during antenatal care.
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