Nutritional Knowledge and Patterns of Women in Ardabil Province

Women play a vital role in food preparation and family health and they prepare family's meals according to their taste. Nutritional awareness and knowledge of women can affect family nutrition status. The aim of this study was survey on nutritional behavior of women in rural and urban areas of Ardabil province. This cross - sectional study was done on 1972 women (986 urban and 986 rural residents) in a regional priority determination project through need assessment in 2005. Samples were selected by random cluster sampling method and data on nutritional behaviors (knowledge, attitude function) were collected by trained interviewers using an appropriate questionnaire. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square. Among the meals, consumption of breakfast was considered important by majority of subjects, and knowledge of women in urban area was higher than that of rural area (p=0.0001). More than 90% in urban and rural areas preferred using iodized salt in cooking. Urban women stored cooked food in the refrigerator until the next meal more frequently than that of rural women (p=0.0003). Women in both urban and rural areas use cooling method for storing vegetables. Consumption of vegetables or salad with meals was higher in urban than rural area (p=0.002). Response to question on usefulness of smoked fish consumption were higher in rural than urban women (p=0.00008). Most of women in Ardabil province announced beginning of the cook as the best time for addition of iodized salt. This study shows that the nutritional knowledge and practice of most of the women in Ardebil province are good. However, training and intervention are required for some cases such as considering beneficial the use of smoked fish, addition time of iodized salt during food preparation, and liquid oil consumption.