ABSTRACT. In prenatal nutrition, intake of adequate and balanced diet is required for successful pregnancy outcomes. The aim of this study is to determine whether there is an association between different levels of nutritional knowledge of pregnant women and healthy attitude and practice. This was a cross-sectional study among a group of normal pregnant Malay women who were selected based on systematic sampling during their routine antenatal follow up in the clinic of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.A self-administered questionnaire of knowledge, attitude and practice of food and nutrition was used. The association of knowledge with healthy food practice and attitude was obtained with chi-square test. Findings of this study showed there was a significant association between level of nutritional knowledge and food practices on: frequency of snack (P= 0.003) and fast food consumption (P= 0.043), choice of healthy food for dinner (P = 0.005) and lunch (P= 0.016), frequency of eating chicken (P= 0.002), consumption of vitamin and mineral supplements (P= 0.006), type of activity during free time (P<0.001), kind of drink (P= 0.038), attitude about significance of physical activity (P= 0.003) and most important items when buying foods (P= 0.006). On the other hand, there was no significant association between knowledge level of participants and their frequency and type of breakfast intake (P= 0.836), consumption of healthy snacks (P= 0.168), frequency of consumption of fish and sea foods, meat, egg, beans, vegetables, fruits, and milk. This study showed most pregnant women have moderate or good nutritional knowledge. But their knowledge needs to be improved in order to affect their practices more effectively.
KEYWORDS. Dietary habits, level of knowledge, pregnancy