Medical evaluation is essential.
The person must regularly eat these craved substances for a month or more before a diagnosis is given. Perhaps ten to twenty percent of children have pica at some time before adulthood. Depending on the population, zero percent to sixty-eight percent of pregnant women have pica. Those in lower socioeconomic groups seem to have more problems with these cravings. In some cases, pica is related not to dietary deficiencies but to folk traditions passed on in families or ethnic groups.