Background: In Ethiopia, poor dietary practice among pregnant women ranges from 39.3 to 66.1%. Limited nutritional knowledge and wrong perception towards dietary behaviours were underlying factors. Hence, this study was aimed to determine the effect of nutrition education based on Health Belief Model on nutritional knowledge and dietary practice of pregnant women in Dissie town, northeast Ethiopia, 2017 GC.
Methods: Community-based cluster randomized control trial was employed. A total of 138 pregnant women participated. Nutrition education was given using Health Belief Model (HBM) theory and general nutrition education for intervention and control group, respectively. The baseline and endline nutrition knowledge and dietary practice was assessed using knowledge and dietary practice questions. HBM construct was assessed using five-point likert scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Student's t-tests and chi-square tests were used. At 95% confidence level, P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Result: The mean pre- and postintervention nutritional knowledge was 6.9 and 13.4, and good dietary practice was 56.5% and 84.1% in intervention group, respectively. The increase in mean nutritional knowledge was statistically significant (P < 0.001). In control group, the pre- and postintervention mean nutritional knowledge was 7.4 and 9.8, and good dietary practice was 60.9% and 72.5%, respectively. There was significant difference (P < 0.05) in mean nutritional knowledge and proportion of good dietary practices between two groups at endline, but the difference was not significant (P > 0.05) at baseline. There was significant (P < 0.001) improvement in the scores of HBM constructs in intervention group.
Conclusion and recommendations: Providing nutrition education based on Health Belief Model improves nutritional knowledge and dietary practices of pregnant women. Hence, governmental, nongovernmental organization, health extension workers, and other health-care provider should include Health Belief Model construct into existing nutrition education programs. Moreover, government should incorporate HBM theory into national nutrition education guidelines.