Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 19, 2025
Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes
Published on: June 28, 2024
Enhancing nutrition knowledge and dietary diversity among rural pregnant women in Malawi: a randomized controlled
Lillian Ziyenda Katenga-Kaunda1,2, Penjani Rhoda Kamudoni3, Gerd Holmboe-Ottesen3
1Malawi Government, Health and Social Services, Mzuzu City Council, Mzuzu, Malawi.
Background:
In many sub-Saharan African countries, such as Malawi, antenatal care (ANC) services do not deliver sufficient nutrition awareness to improve adequate dietary intake in pregnancy. We therefore compared the effects of supplementary nutrition education and dietary counselling with routine ANC service on nutrition knowledge and dietary intakes among Malawian pregnant women.
Methods:
We used data from a two-armed cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) of which the intervention group received supplementary nutrition education, dietary counselling and routine ANC services whereas the controls received only routine ANC services. The RCT was conducted in 10 control and 10 intervention villages in Mangochi, Southern Malawi and included pregnant women between their 9th and 16th gestational weeks. We examined the changes in nutrition knowledge and dietary diversity from enrolment (baseline) to study end-point of the RCT (two weeks before expected delivery). We used three linear multilevel regression models with random effects at village level (cluster) to examine the associations between indicators of nutrition knowledge and diet consumption adjusted for selected explanatory variables.
Results:
Among 257 pregnant women enrolled to the RCT, 195 (76%) were available for the current study. The supplementary nutrition education and counselling led to significant improvements in nutrition knowledge, dietary diversity and nutrition behaviour in the intervention group compared with controls. Most women from both study groups had a moderate consumption of diversified foods at study end-point. A significant positive association between nutrition knowledge and consumption of a diversified diet was only observed in the intervention group.
Conclusions:
Nutrition knowledge and dietary diversity improved in both study groups, but higher in the intervention group. Increased nutrition knowledge was associated with improved dietary diversity only in the intervention women, who also improved their nutrition perceptions and behaviour. Antenatal nutrition education needs strengthening to improve dietary intakes in pregnancy in this low resource-setting.
Trial Registration:
Clinical trials.gov ID: NCT03136393 (registered on 02/05/2017).
More Related Videos
03:35Determining Gender-Based Differences in Retinal and Choroidal Thickness in Underweight Individuals via Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography
Published on: December 1, 2023
14:43A Novel Method for Involving Women of Color at High Risk for Preterm Birth in Research Priority Setting
Published on: January 12, 2018
Related Concept Videos
01:27Parentral Nutrition: Centeral and Peripheral Parental Nutrition
PN can be administered through two primary routes:
1. Central Parenteral Nutrition (CPN):
CPN involves delivering a high concentration of nutrients through a large vein. This is typically achieved using a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC) or,...
01:27Urinary Tract Calculi IV: Nutrition Therapy and Prevention
01:30Inflammatory Bowel Disease III: Diagnostic Studies and Management I-Nutritional Therapy
Diagnostic studies
A colonoscopy is the definitive screening test, distinguishing ulcerative colitis from other colon diseases with similar symptoms. During a colonoscopy test, inflamed mucosa with exudate ulcerations can be observed, and biopsies are taken to determine the histologic characteristics of the...
01:15Bioavailability Study Design: Healthy Subjects Versus Patients
01:23Dietary Connections