ArticleThe international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity2025
Geophagia in pregnancy and its association with nutritional status - A prospective cohort study in rural north-eastern Tanzania.
Article in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGeophagia or soil-eating behavior is common among pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa, however its relationship with nutritional status demands further investigation. Using a prospective pregnancy cohort from north-eastern Tanzania, we examined the characteristics of geophagia and its association with nutritional status parameters (mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), vitamin B12, folate, ferritin, and hemoglobin) before conception and throughout the gestational period.
methodsPregnant women (n = 530) were interviewed in each trimester regarding their soil-eating habits. Serum concentrations of vitamin B12, folate, ferritin, and hemoglobin, and MUAC were measured before conception and in each trimester. Cross-sectional comparisons between women who ate and did not eat soil were analyzed using Welch's t-test for continuous variables and χ2-test for categorical variables. The association between changes in nutritional status parameters and the initiation of geophagia was investigated using multivariable logistic regression.
resultsThe prevalence of geophagia in this cohort was 27% (n = 143) with most women initiating geophagia in the third trimester. Pregnant women that ate soil had significantly lower ferritin (p = 0.001) prior to conception and at concentrations diagnostic of iron deficiency (p = 0.022) compared to women who did not eat soil. Geophagia was associated with lower ferritin (p ≤ 0.001) and lower hemoglobin (p < 0.05) in each trimester and lower folate in the third trimester (p = 0.007). A smaller decline in hemoglobin and folate across the gestational period was associated with reduced odds of initiating geophagia in the third trimester (hemoglobin: OR 0.71, p = 0.008; folate: OR 0.97, p = 0.008). There was no significant association between a change in MUAC, serum B12 or ferritin and the initiation of geophagia during pregnancy.
conclusionsPrenatal geophagia is closely related to iron and folate status. A greater decrease in hemoglobin and folate is associated with the initiation of geophagia during pregnancy. These findings are particularly relevant to low- and middle-income settings where geophagia is practiced and the prevalence of anemia in pregnancy is high.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.