Determination of nutritional status and nutritional knowledge level of pregnant women living in Erzurum province

Poor quality diets during pregnancy cause adverse nutritional and health problems for mother and fetus. Nutritional knowledge status of pregnant women should be determined and deficiencies should be eliminated for the continuity of healthy generations. This study was carried out to determine the nutritional status and nutritional knowledge levels of pregnant women living in Erzurum. This cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted on 110 pregnant women who were in the last trimester of pregnancy, living in Erzurum, admitted to the Private Buhara Hospital, and accepted to participate in the study. Demographic characteristics of pregnant women, 24-hour dietary intake, food supplement usage status and nutritionan knowledge were determined and anthropometric measurements were made. The data were collected by applying a questionnaire and evaluated with the SPSS 22.0 package program. The mean score of the individuals on the scale was calculated as 26.3±5.8 out of a total of 58 points. The total score obtained by the individuals from the scale was ordered from the smallest to the largest and divided into 25% quartile groups and quartile classifications were made. As a result of this classification, the proportions of individuals in the quartile groups; Q1 (21.9%), Q2 (20.9%), Q3 (23.6%) and Q4 (33.6%) were determined. The average score of individuals in the 30-39 age group from the scale was found to be significantly higher than the other age groups (p=0.019). Individuals with higher education level (27.8±5.6 points) were found to be significantly higher than individuals with a higher education level (23.5±5.2 points) of correctly answering the questions on the scale (p=0.000). The average BMI values of the individuals before pregnancy, in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd trimesters, were 24.6±4.6 kg/m2, 25.0±4.5 kg/m2, 26.6±4.4 kg/m2 and 29.2±4.4 kg/m2, respectively. The body weight gained by obese individuals was found to be higher than those of normal body weight and overweight individuals (p=0.002). According to the study; The nutritional knowledge level and nutritional status of pregnant women are not at the desired level. There is a need for nutrition education and healthy eating behavior change to be given by dietitians for pregnant women.