Pages: (11-20 )
Abstract
The study assessed the knowledge, practice and prevalence of pica behavior in pregnant women in Ikenne and Sagamu local government areas, Ogun state. A total of 149 pregnant women who attend selected primary health care centres in the local government areas. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on their knowledge and practice of pica. SPSS version 20.0 was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that 43.6% of the respondents were between the ages of 21-30 and 84.6% of them were married. At least 30.9% had secondary school education, Over half (63.8%) of the respondents were Yoruba. 46.3% of the respondents were in their second trimester, the respondents had pregnancy symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, headache, loss of appetite, dizziness and spitting. 63.1% of the respondents craved non-food items while 58.4% of them ate non-food items. 59.8% of the respondents practice pica with about 49% practicing pagophagia (ice), 10.1% practice geophagia (nzu-white sand). About 16.1% said they ate non-food items because they craved it while 19.5% take it for satisfaction. 40.9% of them take these substances every other day. Almost 38.3% practiced pica during childhood and adolescence and 28.2% practiced during previous pregnancies. While 10.1% of them feel uncomfortable if they do not take the non-food items, 6.0% feel both sick and uncomfortable if they do not take the non-food items. It was discovered from this study that more than half of the respondents practice pica most especially phagophagia and geophagia even though almost all the respondents do not know what pica is and if there are negative effects associated with the practice of pica.
Keywords: Pica; Pagophagia; Geophagia; Pregnancy; Non-food items,