Publication:

Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding maternal nutrition in pregnant women in an urban population: an observational cross-sectional study

Background Pregnancy entails profound physiological as well as psychological shifts that elevate nutritional requirements. Hence, optimal intake during pregnancy and lactation is essential to optimize maternal health and fetal development. There are various factors like mother’s nutritional reserves, dietary intake, and others that significantly influence maternal and perinatal outcomes. Therefore, assessing women’s awareness and behavior regarding nutrition becomes important. Knowledge, attitude and practice studies are useful tools in assessing the nutritional awareness of pregnant women as well as identifying gaps in understanding and guiding effective interventions accordingly.

Methods A cross-sectional descriptive hospital-based study was carried from April to June 2025. This study consisted of a multiple-choice questionnaire testing the knowledge, attitude and practice of 585 pregnant females visiting the obstetrics department outpatient services at a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai.

Results We considered factors like parity and education that may affect the knowledge, attitude and practice assessment of the nutrition in pregnant women. The participants demonstrated comparatively limited knowledge about nutrition during pregnancy (mean score: 4.42). However, their attitude showed a positive response (mean score: 4.356) and the practice score exceeded their knowledge score (mean score: 4.52).

Conclusions In our study, we found some loopholes in the people’s knowledge, attitude and practices of nutrition in pregnancy which highlights lack of awareness and correct knowledge amongst the people about the same.