Fatema-Tuj-Zohra, et al.(2019) Dietary Diversity of Pregnant Women of Rajshahi District in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to explore the dietary diversity of pregnant women of Rajshahi district in Bangladesh. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 pregnant women who were randomly selected from four different sub-districts of Rajshahi district: Godagari, Rajshahi Sadar, Shardah and Tanor. Dietary diversity was measured by Dietary Diversity Score (DDS). All statistical analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS 20.0. Findings: The mean age of the respondents was 29±3 years. The mean Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) of the respondents was found 5.5±0.88, minimum and maximum DDS were 4 and 7, respectively. The study exposed that majority of the respondents (about 91%) had a medium dietary diversity and about 9% had dietary diversity of high level. Low dietary diversity was not found among the pregnant women of the study area. About all of the respondents had consumed cereals during the previous twenty-four hour of the dietary survey, about 97% had consumed vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables, about 91% had eaten other fruits and vegetables and meat, fish. The percent consumption of milk and milk products among the pregnant women were about 78% and about 35% had consumed legumes, nuts, seeds and dark green leafy vegetables. Organ meat consumption was negligible (only 1%) among the respondents and egg consumption was found to be only 21%. Conclusion: Dietary pattern of pregnant women of Rajshahi district has been found to be diversified enough reflecting probable adequacy of micronutrients.