Disparities in health and nutrition between semi-urban and rural mothers and birth outcomes of their newborns in Bukavu, DR Congo: a baseline assessment

Abstract

Aim: This research aimed to evaluate health and nutritional practices of mothers during pregnancy and birth outcomes of their newborns in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), comparing semi-urban and rural areas. Background: Health and nutrition during pregnancy are crucial for adequate development of the fetus. Health care plays an important role but is often poor in rural areas of developing countries. Methods: A baseline survey of a nutritional follow-up study was conducted in two semi-urban and one rural hospital in the vicinity of Bukavu, DRC. In total, 471 mother-child pairs were recruited after delivery. Data collection included socio-demographic parameters, nutrition and health measures during pregnancy, and anthropometric parameters. Semi-urban and rural study locations were compared and predictors of birth weight evaluated. Findings: Semi-urban and rural mothers differed significantly in nutrition and health practices during pregnancy, as well as birth outcomes. In the rural area, there was a higher rate of newborns with low birth weight (10.7%) and lower rates of antimalarial medication (80.8%), deworming (24.6%), consumption of nutritional supplements (81.5%), and being informed about nutrition by medical staff (32.8%) during pregnancy as well as practicing family planning (3.1%) than in the semi-urban areas (2.7%, 88.6%, 88.3%; 89.3%, 46.5%, and 17.1%, respectively). Birth weight was positively predicted by increasing maternal MUAC, age, and gestational age and negatively by rural location, being primipara, being a farmer, and female newborn sex. Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of strengthening antenatal care activities especially in rural areas in order to ameliorate both maternal and infantile health and ensure appropriate development.

Nutrition-Related Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Anemia Status of Lactating Mothers in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo—A Cross-Sectional Analysis

“…This might contribute to the deviation between the overall number in South Kivu and in this study. There is a further discrepancy, with only 3.9% of the study participants self-reporting anemia diagnosis during pregnancy at the baseline of this study [ 14 ]. This suggests a potentially high amount of undetected micronutrient deficiencies in the population.…”

“…The latter will be discussed in the next section. Malaria was the most commonly reported health problem during pregnancy and there was no full coverage of antimalarial and antihelminthic treatment during pregnancy in this study cohort [ 14 ].…”

“…Mother–infant pairs were not eligible to participate if mothers were severely underweight, suffered from an immunodeficiency disease in the last stage, experienced complications during pregnancy, or were not living in the catchment health areas/not visiting one of the study health centers for follow-up appointments. Further details are presented elsewhere [ 14 ].…”

“…Sample size calculation and recruitment were based on the intervention study’s requirement of three groups of mothers with low MUAC (≥21 and <25 cm), one group with normal MUAC (≥25 and <28 cm), and two groups with high MUAC (≥28 cm). Accordingly, each eligible mother with low or high MUAC and every third mother with normal MUAC was recruited [ 14 ].…”

“…Maternal nutritional knowledge, attitudes, practices, dietary intake, MUAC, and maternal and infantile Hb were analyzed in this study. Maternal age and educational level were assessed at baseline [ 14 ] and included into analyses as they were previously reported to be associated with nutritional knowledge, dietary intake, or anemia [ 6 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”