Women’s awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours towards nutrition and health in Pakistan: Evaluation of kitchen gardens nutrition program

INTRODUCTION: Vulnerability to malnutrition is very high with low-income women and their children in rural Balochistan with contributing factors including lack of awareness about proper nutrition, low literacy, scarcity of vegetables and fruit, and low purchasing power of households. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s kitchen garden program provides resources to improve nutrition and health knowledge and promote healthy eating practices. The objective of this study was to assess nutrition and health awareness, knowledge, attitudes, behavioural intentions/behaviours (AKAB) of women who attended the kitchen garden program and trainings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A community based cross-sectional survey (N = 209) using a two-stage cluster sampling method was used to select households with survey participants being mothers with children under five years of age. A pretested questionnaire was administered via face-to-face surveys by trained enumerators in two districts of Balochistan province of Pakistan. Nutrition and health AKAB were constructed indices. Chi-square tests compared statistical differences in AKAB by women attending against a control group who did not-attend kitchen garden interventions. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to assess kitchen garden program outcomes against key AKAB indicators, while adjusting for covariates. RESULTS: Significant differences (p<0.001) were identified between intervention and control groups with women attending kitchen garden being more aware of the components of kitchen garden (65.8% vs 36.8%), and more knowledgeable about causes of illnesses caused by poor nutrition including, iron deficiency anemia, pregnancy, and unborn child health complications, compared to women not attending kitchen gardens program. Logistic regression analysis identified women attending kitchen gardens also had higher odds of being more knowledgeable (OR = 1.59, 95%CI 1.27–1.99, p<0.001), having improved attitudes (OR = 4.86, 95%CI 2.77–8.53, p <0.001), and behavioural intentions/behaviours (OR = 1.98, 95%CI 1.26–3.12, p = 0.003) towards improved nutrition and health. CONCLUSIONS: Substantial opportunities exist for achieving improved nutrition and health outcomes with vulnerable groups in Balochistan, through greater participation in kitchen gardens behavioural change programs and interventions. As part of scaling-up efforts, academically rigorous project evaluations should be institutionalized for continuous improvement of nutrition programs to address micronutrient deficiencies in rural communities.