The Nutritional Knowledge and Nutritional Status of Pregnant Women in Aceh Besar: The Correlational Study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To identify the association between pregnant women's knowledge and nutritional status. METHODOLOGY: This study was an observational correlation analytic study with a cross-sectional design. One hundred and one pregnant women were selected using a simple random sampling technique at six Aceh Besar community health centres in Aceh Province, Indonesia. A nutritional knowledge questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, and nutritional status was measured based on the Pre-Pregnancy Body Mass Index (PP-BMI) of pregnant women and Maternal Weight Gain (MWG) during pregnancy. RESULTS: The Chi-Square test results show a significant association between knowledge and maternal PP-BMI (p=.000), but there was no association between knowledge and MWG (p=.710). CONCLUSION: Nutritional knowledge is essential for pregnant women because it can influence maternal nutritional status during pregnancy. It is hoped that all pregnant women will have self-awareness in gaining good knowledge about nutrition during pregnancy and that health workers will provide optimal nutrition education so that pregnant women are prevented from the risk of nutritional disorders.

Keywords

• nutrition
• knowledge
• body mass index
• weight gain