Behavior change through counselling to improve dietary diversity of pregnant mothers: A lesson from Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka as a middle-income country performs outstandingly in health-related indicators on a par with the developed world. Continuous political commitment, together with dedication of health professionals, has still been unable to reach the desired level in nutritional indicators. The possibility of improving maternal nutrition without being an economical burden to the country is worthy of study. The objective of this study was to improve the dietary diversity of pregnant mothers through nutritional counselling in the Kalutara district. The study was a cluster randomized community trial (n= 270 per arm) conducted in two phases.