Iron supplementation during pregnancy should be more considered. However, there was no significant association between pica and age, employment, pregnancy ranks, the history of abortions or stillbirths, infant sex, and iron supplementation before pregnancy. In this study, there was significant association between pica practice and education, unwanted pregnancy, pregnancy complications, the levels of economic satisfaction, iron supplementation during pregnancy, kind of infant feeding, and type of delivery. Sixty-four percent of women reported practicing pica regularly on a daily basis. The prevalence of pica among the studied population was 8.33%, and pagophagia (ice and freezer frost) was the most common form of pica which is characterized by the ingestion of non-food substance (76%). The data were analyzed by chi square test and logistic regression in SPSS 16. Demographic information and characteristics of pica during pregnancy, such as the kind, the onset, duration, frequency and the reasons, and also iron supplementation status before and during pregnancy and kind of infant feeding were collected via interview and questionnaire. Three hundred women were selected by stratified sampling method from the population. This cross-sectional study was carried out in health care centers in west of Tehran. But it’s unknown if these medications actually cause people to develop pica. Certain medications increase the risk of someone developing pica or similar behaviors. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of pica during pregnancy and its related risk factors. Pica is an eating disorder typically defined as the persistent ingestion of nonnutritive substances for at least 1 month at an age for which this behavior is developmentally inappropriate. Pregnancy and sickle cell anemia are two conditions that have connections to pica. The exact cause of pica is often unknown. Pica is an eating disorder characterized by the persistent ingestion of substances that the consumer does not define as food.

Pica during pregnancy