Adequate maternal nutrition during pregnancy is essential for the health of both mother and fetus, and inadequate nutrient intake can perpetuate intergenerational malnutrition. In Ethiopia, despite the efforts to improve maternal and child nutrition outcomes across the country, there is a dearth of evidence to understand the contextual determinants of food consumption score (FCS) among pregnant women in Ethiopia including Addis Ababa. This study aims to assess the level of FCS and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in selected health facilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. An institutional based cross sectional study design was conducted among pregnant women attending an antenatal care program in five selected health centres Data was collected by structured interview questionnaire. The FCS was captured using the validated World Food Program tool and classified accordingly. Descriptive statistics through frequency distribution tables, proportion and graph was computed. Bi-variable and multi-variable binary logistic regression was employed where crude and adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were reported. Factors with a p-value ≤ 0.25 in the bivariable models were entered into the multivariable model. Factors with P < 0.05 in the multivariable model were considered statistically significant and independent predictors of the level of FCS. A total of 411 pregnant women with response rate of 97.6% participated in the study. Nearly half of the participants, 180 (43.8%) were in the age range of 25–34 years and 201 (49.8%) were in the second trimester pregnancy. The overall acceptable FCS among the pregnant women was found to be 74.5% (95% CI: 70.1%-79.9%). Previous birth interval (AOR = 2.45; 95% CI: 1.07–5.62), knowledge (AOR = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.198–0.568) and attitude (AOR = 0.14; 95% CI: 0.075–0.255) were factors associated with FCS. The majority of pregnant women had satisfactory total FCS that complied with accepted nutritional standards. Knowledge, attitude, and previous birth interval were all significantly associated with the FCS. Therefore, these findings underscore the need to strengthen evidence-based nutrition education within the antenatal care.
Tamene et al. (Mon,) studied this question.