Impact of nutrition counselling on the effectiveness of multiple strategy community intervention to improve maternal and child health
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Date
2017
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
A total of 60 pregnant women (20-40 years) registered in Mother and Child Care Unit of Civil
Hospital, Ludhiana during 1st trimester of pregnancy were selected for the present study. The
subjects were divided into two groups (Control with multiple strategy community intervention
and Experimental with nutrition counselling + multiple strategy community intervention).
Nutrition counselling with a holistic approach through lectures, discussions, power point
presentation and demonstrations was imparted to the subjects for 5 months. The impact was
assessed in the terms of improvement in dietary intake, anthropometric, haematological
profile and knowledge level of the subjects. The findings revealed that dietary intake of
various food groups significantly (P<0.05) increased during post intervention in the
experimental group but the diet still remained inadequate. A positive impact of nutrition
counselling was observed on the nutrient intake of energy, protein, vitamin-C, folic acid,
calcium and iron of the experimental group. A significant (P<0.05) increase was observed in
the mean haemoglobin level of the subjects from 9.22±0.75 g/dl to 10.19±0.85 g/dl leading to
20 per cent decrease in moderate anaemia in the experimental group. All the anthropometric
indices of the neonates in the experimental group were significantly (P<0.05) higher than the
control group and the incidence of low birth weight (LBW) in the control group was higher as
compared to experimental group. Nutrition counselling proved to be an effective measure in
improving knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) regarding maternal and child health
among the subjects. Maternal nutritional status showed significant (P<0.05) correlation with
anthropometry of newborns. Birth weight of the newborn was also found to be positively
associated with age, education and pre-pregnancy nutritional status of the mother. The study
recommends that nutrition counselling should be an imperative part of the multiple strategy
community intervention to achieve maternal and child nutritional health status.
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