Ouida E. Westney

Pica in an Urban Environment

The practice of pica, the compulsive ingestion of nonfood substances over a sustained period of time, was studied in 553 African American women who were admitted to prenatal clinics in Washington, D.C. Dietary, biochemical, and psychosocial correlates of the pica practices of a subset of this urban population are presented in this paper. Geophagia, compulsive eating of clay or dirt, was not observed in these women; pagophagia, or the ingestion of large quantities of ice and freezer frost, was self reported in 8.1% of the women, who consumed 1/2 to 2 cups a day from 1 to 7 days per week. Serum ferritin concentrations of pica women were significantly lower during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy; the average values for three trimesters of pregnancy for both ferritin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin were significantly lower in pica women than their nonpica counterparts (P = 0.0001 and P = 0.017, respectively). Although not significantly different, the iron (66 vs. 84% RDA) and calcium (60 vs. 75% RDA) contents of the diets of pica women were less those of nonpica women. Gestational age, body length, and body weight were not different, but head circumferences of infants delivered to pica women who consumed freezer frost and/or ice were smaller than those of nonpica women (P = 0.012). The hypothesis is presented that pica in African American women may be a mediator of stress, acting through the immune system. The size of the social support network of pica women was significantly less than that of nonpica women.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The effects of prenatal education intervention on unwed prospective adolescent fathers.

This study assesses the impact of a prenatal education program dealing with human sexuality, pregnancy, prenatal care, labor, delivery, and infant and child care on the unwed expectant adolescent father. It also assesses the relationship between the fathers knowledge in these areas and his supportive behaviors toward the adolescent mother and the expected infant. The 28 black 15-18-year-old adolescent males who volunteered to participate in the study were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 15) or a control group (n = 13). Each was pretested (T-1) with Form A of a 75-item prenatal questionnaire, and posttested (T-2) with Form B of the same instrument after an intervention for the experimental group, or 4 weeks after the initial assessment for the comparison group. Findings suggest significant gains in knowledge for the experimental group at T-2 versus T-1 with regard to 1) pregnancy and prenatal care, and 2) infant development and child care. The data also suggest that fathers who were more informed tended to report more supportive behaviors toward the mother and the infant.

Multiple factors as mediators of the reduced incidence of low birth weight in an urban clinic population.

A five year prospective observational study was initiated in 1985 at Howard University to describe the nutritional, clinical, dietary, lifestyle, environmental, and socioeconomic characteristics of women who enrolled in the hospital prenatal clinic. The participants were nulliparous, between the ages of 18 and 35 years, free of diabetes and abnormal hemoglobins (sickle cell disease, thalassemia, and hemoglobin C), and had been admitted prior to the 29th week of gestation. During the three year period from 1985-1988, the incidence of low birth weight (LBW) in 239 deliveries to project participants was 8.3%, whereas that of women simultaneously enrolled in the prenatal clinic with the same eligibility requirements, but not recruited for the research project, was 21.9% (P = 0.001). The incidence of LBW in infants of African American women with these eligibility requirements who were delivered by private physicians but were not enrolled in the project, was 6.3%. The reduction in LBW of infants delivered to participants in this study is attributed to the enhanced social and psychological support by project staff during their pregnancies. The caring, sensitive demeanor of the research project staff may have empowered the participants to (a) give greater compliance (91 vs. 70%) in the ingestion of the routine physician-prescribed vitamin/mineral supplement, which provided nutrients low (less than 70% of the 1989 RDAs) in their customary diets, such as folate, pyridoxine, iron, zinc, and magnesium and (b) show greater accountability in keeping prenatal clinic appointments.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)