| dc.description.abstract |
Pica is an indicator of low micronutrients in a pregnant woman’s health. Low micronutrients pose a great risk to
an otherwise healthy pregnancy. A healthy pregnancy, results in a healthy mother and baby; the critical probability in every
pregnancy. The aim of the study was to introduce multiple micronutrients to promote maternal nutrition and influence
development in pregnancy health outcomes. Sub-populations at risk of nutritional deficiencies and provided opportunities for
early intervention to support the known benefit of multiple micronutrients on pregnancy outcomes i.e. up to six weeks (42
days) post delivery. The variations on pregnancy health, pica and hemoglobin levels among the Multiple Micronutrients
(MMs) and Iron Folic Acid (IFA) groups. This was a block randomized controlled study. The intervention arm received MMs
while the control received the usual care of IFA. A structured questionnaire with open and closed ended questions was used.
Focus group discussions were conducted using a semi-structured guide to collect the qualitative data on the effects of prenatal
multiple micronutrients among the pregnant women. The study assumed equal variances based on the Levene’s test of >0.10 (f,
0.196, p=0.661). The difference in inter trimester weight gain means was 5.85 kgs for MMs and 5.52 kgs for IFA (t, 0.109,
p=0.914), duration to resumption of household work was 7 days for MMs and 14 days for the IFA groups. The hemoglobin
level increased by; 1.25 g/dl for MMs, and 0.45 g/dl for the IFA (t, 0.897, p= 0.376). Pica for stones was experienced among
55.6% of pregnant women; however there was no pica within 14 days among MMs enrollment, but persisted in the IFA group.
The study demonstrated no significance in the importance of multiple micronutrients in increasing hemoglobin level (P,0.376),
reduction of pica craving during pregnancy (P,0.176) and resumption of household duties (P,0.067) post delivery compared to
those on Iron Folic Acid. |
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