The Effect of a Nutrition Education Program on LearningDuring Pregnancy: Comparing Group Discussions andMultimedia Methods

Background: the prerequisite of effective nutrition intervention is an appropriate education.this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition education based on discussion andmultimedia in the learning of pregnant women.methods: this randomized educational trial was conducted on 174 pregnant women in gonabadcity, 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). thedemographic information form and assessment of learning questionnaire were completed beforethe study for all three groups. in the intervention group, training was based on the discussion andmultimedia packages. multimedia packages were given to mothers in the intervention group for2 weeks. in the discussion group, mothers were divided into subgroups of 8 to 12 members, andeducational subjects were presented over three 90 min sessions. one month after the intervention,a post-test was administered to all groups.results: the mean gestational ages in the multimedia group, discussion group, and control groupwere 9.66, 9.54, and 9.40 weeks, respectively. the results showed that the difference betweenthe multimedia and discussion groups (p<0.001) regarding the cognitive scores was significantbefore and after the intervention. there were significant differences between groups regardingaffective domain scores before and after the intervention (p=0.03).conclusion: the effectiveness of multimedia learning in the cognitive domain and discussionin the affective domain was confirmed. therefore, it is recommended to use innovative andeffective methods such as multimedia packages for educating pregnant women