Is Unplanned Pregnancy more expected in Food Insecure Households? A Cross-sectional Study among Iranian Mothers

In developing countries, food insecurity is a serious problem associated with unplanned pregnancy. Very few studies have assessed the relationship between unplanned pregnancy and food insecurity. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine this relationship in order to specify food insecurity determinants among Iranian women.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 700 postpartum women in Tehran city, Iran. The samples were selected from ten community health centers. Demographic, socio-economic, and food security status data were collected by questionnaire (including 18-item USDA questionnaire), and analyzed in SPSS software version 22 via Chi-square test, independent sample T-test, and Logistic regression.

A significant positive association existed between food security and family income (P<0.001, OR=0.994), education level of women (P=0.005, OR=0.211), home ownership (P<0.001, OR=3.099), ethnicity of Fars (P=0.009, OR=1.756), and planned pregnancy (P=0.035, OR=1.694). The association between food security and other variables (employment status of women and their husbands, family size, and age) was not significant.

Unplanned pregnancy among food insecure women was significantly higher than food secure ones. This indicates that women from food insecure household may need more family planning education and that families with unplanned pregnancy might require more support from the society or government in order to prevent food insecurity.