Multiple Micronutrients Versus Iron Folic Acid on Pica and Hemoglobin Levels Among Pregnant Women in Kenya

Abstract

Pica is an indicator of low micronutrients in a pregnant woman's health. Low micronutrients pose a great risk to an otherwise healthy pregnancy. A healthy pregnancy, results in a healthy mother and baby; the critical probability in every pregnancy. The aim of the study was to introduce multiple micronutrients to promote maternal nutrition and influence development in pregnancy health outcomes. Sub-populations at risk of nutritional deficiencies and provided opportunities for early intervention to support the known benefit of multiple micronutrients on pregnancy outcomes i.e. up to six weeks (42 days) post delivery. The variations on pregnancy health, pica and hemoglobin levels among the Multiple Micronutrients (MMs) and Iron Folic Acid (IFA) groups. This was a block randomized controlled study. The intervention arm received MMs while the control received the usual care of IFA. A structured questionnaire with open and closed ended questions was used. Focus group discussions were conducted using a semi-structured guide to collect the qualitative data on the effects of prenatal multiple micronutrients among the pregnant women. The study assumed equal variances based on the Levene's test of >0.10 (f, 0.196, p=0.661). The difference in inter trimester weight gain means was 5.85 kgs for MMs and 5.52 kgs for IFA (t, 0.109, p=0.914), duration to resumption of household work was 7 days for MMs and 14 days for the IFA groups. The hemoglobin level increased by; 1.25 g/dl for MMs, and 0.45 g/dl for the IFA (t, 0.897, p= 0.376). Pica for stones was experienced among 55.6% of pregnant women; however there was no pica within 14 days among MMs enrollment, but persisted in the IFA group. The study demonstrated no significance in the importance of multiple micronutrients in increasing hemoglobin level (P,0.376), reduction of pica craving during pregnancy (P,0.176) and resumption of household duties (P,0.067) post delivery compared to those on Iron Folic Acid.