Correlates of Disordered Eating Behavior among Pregnant Women

There is large number of research evidence on the existence of disordered eating behavior during pregnancy. However, in Pakistan no such study has been conducted so far that could address this issue. An initiative has been taken in the present study in this regard. For this purpose, a sample of 300 pregnant women (100 from each trimester of pregnancy) of age range 20-40 years was selected through nonprobability purposive sampling. A self-constructed structured interview schedule was used to probe demographic information (such as age, education, monthly income, and profession as well as information related to pregnancy such as month/trimester of pregnancy, height, weight, nausea experienced during pregnancy, and use of dietary supplements during pregnancy). In order to assess disordered eating behavior in pregnant women, the Disordered Eating Behavior Scale developed by Muazzarn and Khalid (2011) was used. The focus of the present study was to find out the existence of disordered eating behavior in this sample of pregnant women as well as to know how factors like age, income, profession, education, trimester of pregnancy, nausea, and body mass index inlluence disordered eating in pregnancy. The research fmdings revealed the existence of disordered eating behavior in pregnant women as well as the factors mentioned earlier influenced disordered eating in pregnancy. Furthermore, participants' characteristics and pregnancy related factors predicted disordered eating behavior in pregnant women.