The Effect of a Nutrition Education Program on Learning During Pregnancy: Comparing Group Discussions and Multimedia Methods

The prerequisite of effective nutrition intervention is an appropriate education. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition education based on discussion and multimedia in the learning of pregnant women. 

This randomized educational trial was conducted on 174 pregnant women in Gonabad City, northeast Iran. The study participants were randomly assigned into three groups (58, 57, and 59 women in the multimedia group, discussion group, and control group, respectively). The demographic information form and assessment of learning questionnaire were completed before the study for all three groups. In the intervention group, training was based on the discussion and multimedia packages. Multimedia packages were given to mothers in the intervention group for 2 weeks. In the discussion group, mothers were divided into subgroups of 8 to 12 members, and educational subjects were presented over three 90 min sessions. One month after the intervention, a post-test was administered to all groups.

The mean gestational ages in the multimedia group, discussion group, and control group were 9.66, 9.54, and 9.40 weeks, respectively. The results showed that the difference between the multimedia and discussion groups (P<0.001) regarding the cognitive scores was significant before and after the intervention. There were significant differences between groups regarding affective domain scores before and after the intervention (P=0.03).

The effectiveness of multimedia learning in the cognitive domain and discussion in the affective domain was confirmed. Therefore, it is recommended to use innovative and effective methods such as multimedia packages for educating pregnant women.