The Relationship between Dietary Diversity at Third Trimester of Pregnancy and Newborns Anthropometric Indices at Birth

Background: Due to the importance of nutrition during pregnancy and its role in future generations health, the study tried to determine dietary diversity and its relationship with newborns anthropometric indices at birth. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 400 pregnant women (28-40 weeks of pregnancy) whom were referred to the health centers in Zahedan were studied in 2016. To assess the usual dietary intake, food frequency questionnaire and the 24-hour recall were used. Dietary diversity was calculated based on the score 8 of food groups using food pyramid of Food and Agriculture Department, and Kant method. Newborns anthropometric indices were measured by the standard and analyzed by using descriptive statistics and analytical tests. Results: The mean (± Standard deviation) of the total score of dietary diversity was 2.60 ± 0.73 and the highest diversity was seen in the dairy group (0.45 ± 0.19) and the lowest diversity of food was observed in grains group (0.20 ± 0.10). There was a significant difference between various groups of birth weight at the score of dietary diversity and it was significantly increased by rising family s incomes. The linear regression analysis has shown that the variables including; weight at the beginning of pregnancy, a variety of dairy products, vegetables and total dietary diversity could be considered for predicting birth weight. Conclusion: The study has shown that there was a significant correlation between the score of dietary diversity and newborns anthropometric indices at birth.