In-home Prenatal Nutrition Intervention Increased Dietary Iron Intakes and Reduced Low Birthweight in Low-Income African-American Women

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Subjects and Methods

Volunteers were 27 pregnant African-American women residing in a county with representative rates of LBW similar to those of the United States. The women were recruited through the local county health department WIC Program and they were all at 24 weeks gestation or less. They had no pre-existing health conditions and none of them were following prescribed diets. Women were randomly assigned to either an intervention or a control group.

The intervention protocol (Table 1) was adapted from Widga

Results and Discussion

Of the 27 women recruited, 20 completed the study (10 in the intervention group and 10 in the control group). The 7 women who dropped out (5 from the intervention group and 2 from the control group) indicated that time constraints prevented them from scheduling appointments with the nutritionist. Demographic data for those who completed the study indicated that 7 women in each group (70%) were 21 years of age or younger, 8 in the intervention group (80%) and 10 in the control group (100%) were

Applications

Based on the results of this study, we suggest that programs designed to address the needs of African-American women during pregnancy need to promote culturally acceptable foods to increase dietary intakes of iron, folate, and zinc. Due to the high percentage of single mothers and young mothers, a support system including family, friends, and health professionals needs to be incorporated as part of nutrition intervention to facilitate dietary behavior changes and to provide psychosocial

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References (23)

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance 1997 full report

    (1998)
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