Mustafa Mahfuz, PhD, MPH, MBBS: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Objectives: To compare the dietary consumption pattern among pregnant women living in a resource-poor setting of Dhaka city and in a rural area in Bangladesh.
Methods: Pregnant women were enrolled from a resource-poor urban setting in Mirpur, Dhaka, and a rural area in Matlab. Their dietary intake data were collected using the 24-hour recall method. Data were converted to nutrients using a locally adapted food composition table and reported as the median and interquartile range (IQR) and as percentages of dietary reference intake by the Institute of Medicine. Data were compared between groups by chi-square, fisher exact, or Mann–Whitney U test as appropriate. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant and data analysis was done in STATA 17.
Results: A total of 45 pregnant women from Dhaka and 20 pregnant women from Matlab were interviewed. The median (IQR) age and gestational age of pregnant women were 22 (20, 26) years and 15 (12, 23) weeks, respectively. The daily median (IQR) consumption of energy (urban 2192 (1645, 2644) kcal vs. rural 2253 (1619, 2847) kcal), protein (56 (44, 68) g vs. 56 (41, 77) g), calcium (232 (174, 341) mg vs. 462 (147, 708) mg), iron (11.6 (8.7, 15.3) mg vs. 10.9 (7.5, 15.3) mg), and vitamin A (292 (114, 997) mcg vs. 187 (70, 561) mcg) were similar between urban and rural women (p >0.05). Daily consumption of animal protein (7 (3, 19) g vs. 20 (14, 32) g), fat (25 (13, 47) g vs. 68 (45, 105) g), carbohydrate (408 (293, 501) g vs. 341 (249, 402) g), and zinc (6.4 (4.5, 7.3) mg vs. (8.8 (7.5, 11.6) mg) were lower in urban women (p < 0.05). Overall, they consumed 90 % of the required energy, 79 % of protein, 26 % of calcium, 42 % of iron, and 31 % of the required vitamin A with no difference between the groups (p >0.05). However, consumption of carbohydrates (urban 303 % vs. rural 252 %) was higher in urban women and zinc consumption (urban 58% vs. rural 80 %) was higher in rural women (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: Pregnant women living in both urban resource-poor settings and rural areas consumed a substantially higher amount of carbohydrates, sub-optimal protein, and a very poor amount of calcium, iron, vitamin A, and zinc. Animal protein, fat, and zinc consumptions were low in urban women calls for immediate action.
