Assessment of nutritional beliefs and practices in pregnant and lactating mothers in an urban and rural area of Pakistan.

Nutritional beliefs and practices in 100 pregnant and 100 lactating women were assessed in an urban and rural area of Lahore. A structured questionnaire was used for the purpose. Seventy seven percent women and 54% of their husbands were illiterate, 50.5% belonged to a family with a per capita income of more than Rs.300.00 per month, 52.5% had 7 or more family members and 56% were living in nuclear families. The age of mothers, type of family, literacy, family income, parity and gravidity had not significantly influenced the nutritional beliefs and practices, only urban and rural differences were statistically significant. Eight-four percent of mothers had knowledge that diet should be changed by increasing, adding or avoiding some special food items in the diet during pregnancy and lactation, but only 65.5% practiced them. The reasons for this deficient knowledge and practice of dietary intake are lack of nutritional knowledge and poor economy. However, this can be overcome by improving nutritional knowledge and dietary practices of population in general and vulnerable groups in particular through media and MCH services on the use of locally available low cost nutritious foods and to avoid undue food restrictions. Improvement of applied nutritional knowledge of medical professionals is also necessary.