Assessment of Nutritional Patterns of Pregnant Adolescents in Aswan City

Adolescent pregnancy is a worldwide health problem. It has been considered as a majorhealth problem to pregnant women and their newly born babies especially in developingcountries to the extent that it received considerable attention. Objective: To assess nutritionalpatterns of pregnant adolescents in Aswan City. Settings: Ten Maternal and Child Health(M.C.H) centers in Aswan city were randomly chosen from the available 36 M.C.H centers,affiliated to the Ministry of Health. Subjects: A convenience sample of 300 pregnantadolescents aged 15-21 years was selected from the previous settings, (30 from each MCHcenter). Tool: Adolescent pregnant women nutritional patterns structured interview schedulewas developed by the researcher. It entailed the following parts: Part one: Sociodemographicand reproductive history. Part two: Nutritional patterns structured interviewschedule that comprised: a. Knowledge about nutrition and elements of balanced diet. b.Factors affecting study subject s choice of food. c. Knowledge about risks of malnutrition. d.Nutritional behaviors or habits of pregnant adolescents. Results: A poor total scoreregarding knowledge about nutrition and elements of balanced diet was obtained by 58.0 %of the study subjects. Regarding factors that affect choice of food, nearly two thirds (63.3%)of the study subjects’ husbands were responsible for buying food. Choosing food was theresponsibility of wives among 57.3% of the study subjects More than two- thirds of the studysubjects always had fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy products at home both. Regardingknowledge about risks of malnutrition. Less than two- thirds (65.0%) and slightly more thanone third (34.0%) of the study subjects gained poor and fair total score grade (respectively).On the other hand, the vast majority (94.3%) of the study subjects gained good total score ofnutritional habits. Conclusion: It was concluded that the majority of the study subjects gainedgood nutritional habits in spite of their poor knowledge. Many adolescents have poor dietquality and lack knowledge about the appropriate nutrition. As a result, engaging inunhealthy dietary practices. Recommendations: Improving the nutritional status ofadolescent girls before and during pregnancy is recommended through providing necessaryknowledge about the good eating habits and nutritional requirements. Enforce mass mediashould provide nutritional education programs to adolescents about importance of nutritionand risks of malnutrition especially for pregnant adolescents.