Nutritional Behavior and Weight Gain Change in Pregnant Women by Counseling, in Ardabil Health Centers: An Action Research Study

Background & Objectives: Proper and adequate education during pregnancy is one of the comprehensive goals in reproductive health care programs ,but it had no sufficient effect on nutritional behavior and weight gain in pregnant women of Ardabil. Methods: This study was conducted as an action research program consisting of 2 phases. First establishing a consulting center, and then participating pregnant mothers in nutritional education program. Abotaleb health center along with its accessory stations and because of its suitable condition for study was selected for our research setup and because one of the senior managers - health centers was included in this study, steps were done with greater ease. 510 women referring to Ardabil health centers were selected through convenience sampling method and were randomly allocated to the experiment (n=210) and control (n=197) groups. Education program performed according to the standard protocol of the Ministry of Health in nutrition counseling (15 sessions), and the control group received usual education by midwives in the same center. Data were gathered using a researcher made questionnaire including, nutritional knowledge, and behavior before and after study and analyzed using SPSS-16 software. Results: There was no significant differences in terms of demographic (age, job, education..) between the two groups(p>0.05). At baseline, there was no significant differences in nutritional knowledge and behavior scores (p>0.05). After the intervention, results were significantly higher in the experiment group than those in the control group in terms of the knowledge and behavior (p<0.001). Other results demonstrated that in experiment group low weight gain (mismatch with BMI) respectively before and after study was 47.9% and 3.3% and in control group was 54.8% and 36.8%. Weight gain was significantly suitable in the experiment group (p<0.001). Conclusion: Findings of the study indicate that the operation educational consulting center was effective in promoting nutritional knowledge and behavior of pregnant women. Therefore, it is recommended to implement and continue this program in other health centers.