Maternal nutrition knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers on nutritional status of their children under-five years at Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya: A comparative study of socio-economic income
Journal Title: IOSR Journal of Sports and Physical Education (IOSR-JSPE) - Year 2018, Vol 5, Issue 3
Abstract
Introduction : Mothers’ nutrition knowledge, attitude and practices play an importantrole in childnutritional status1,2,3,4. Weexamined the linkbetweenmaternal nutrition knowledge, attitude and practices, demographiccharacteristics of mothers and nutritionaloutcomes (weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-forheight Z-scores) of theirchildren (6-59 months). One particular focus is on the role of different types of mothers’ demographiccharacteristics, nutrition knowledge, attitudes and practices in comparisonwithsocioeconomicincome. The analysisbuilds on individuallevel data collected at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi County, Kenya in 2017 and 2018. Variousregressionmodelsweredeveloped and estimated. Results show thatmaternal nutrition attitude score, age and educationallevelispositivelyassociatedwithchildstunting, aftercontrolling for otherinfluencingfactorssuch as socio-economicincome and generalmaternal nutrition practice, likewisetherewas a strong association between the mothers’ age, age of child and childunderweight. The strongest positive association withchildstuntingisfound for mothers’ education and maternal attitude about the nutritionalhealthconsequences of not followingrecommendeddietary practices. Thesefindings have direct relevance for nutrition and healthpolicies, especially for designing the contents of nutritionaleducationcampaigns and training programs.ResearchMethodology :ResearchMethods used were cross-sectional, comparative, descriptive, quantitative and qualitative in nature. Tenwards of pediatricdepartmentwereused to yield an exhaustive simple randomsampling of cases thatparticipated in the study of whom 126 (86%) werefromlowsocio-economicincome and 20 (14%) from middle socioeconomicincome. Mothers’ demographiccharacteristics, nutrition knowledge, attitude and practices and children’sdemographiccharacteristics and anthropometricmeasurements, thatis, weight and height data werecollectedusingstructured questionnaires. Food frequency questionnaires yielded data on dietarydiversityprovided at home for childrenbetween 6 months to 59 months. Descriptive and multivariateanalysisdistinguished key indicatorsrelatedwithnutritionalstatus of children. For chi-square test and t-test analyses wereutilized to conclude on the significance of distinction between proportions, whileAnalysis of Variance (ANOVA) wasutilized to test group difference of quantitative variables.Results: Data show that generally there are statistical significant differences between mothers’ demographic characteristics, nutrition attitudes, practices and the nutritional status outcome of their children below five years of low and middle socio-economic income at Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya. The children’s mean age at the time of the study of middle socio-economic income was 25.8 months (SD 5.99) and 23.45 months (SD 12.68) for low socioeconomic income. Some differences were noted in the following parameters:1. Mothers’ demographic characteristics are not statistically significant from the two socio-economic income statuses along the identified background characteristic, with exception of child birth weight, mothers’ educational status, number of children and mothers’ age. Mothers of the low socio-economic income got children significantly at younger age (mean 26 years; SD 5.989) than those from middle socio-economic income status (mean 26 years; SD 3.675) (p=.019). Likewise, there is highly significant difference in number of children given birth to (p=.002) with parents from lower socio-economic status having high number of children (mean 2.35; SD 1.694), while those of middle socio-economic income low number of children (mean 2.21; SD 1.053). Mothers’ from low socio-economic income had low education (mean 4.45; SD 1.142 ) while mothers from middle socio-economic income had high educational status (mean 5.00 ; SD 1.000 ) (p=.050).2. Child’s age demographic characteristic was statistically significant different from between the two group of socio-economic income with respect to child age. Children’s age had a high significant level (p=.000) to the nutritional outcome underweight, those of low socio-economic income had the highest child age (mean 15.56; SD 8.532) while middle income had (mean 13.40; SD 5.177).3. Based on multivariable analysis, the factors associated with weight for age among children below five years of Kenyatta National Hospital in the study included dietary diversity score slightly significance at (p=.056), child age (p=.001), number of children (p=.039), nutrition attitude slightly significant at (p=.097)4. Child age, dietary diversity score and nutrition practices were associated with height for age among children in the study. Child age (p=.007), dietary diversity score (p=.031), nutrition practices (p=.024)5. Child age and nutrition practices were the only factors that were associated with weight for height among children of below five years at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi County. Child age (p=.000) and nutrition practices (p=.006).Conclusion: The study in its findings came to conclusion that there is a statistical significance difference in nutritional status among children from low and middle socio-economic income status. Child and mothers’ socio-demographic characteristics, nutrition practices, attitudes and dietary diversity score are associated with nutritional outcomes in both low and middle socio-economic income. Even though Kenyatta National Hospital has provided standardized guideline for child feeding practices, it is not effected by the mothers hence child malnutrition. The recommendation based on the findings of the study is that Kenyatta National Hospital should do regular follow up to find out whether the nutritional counseling that is provided to mothers at the Hospital is practiced by mothers. Also the ministry of health should ensure that this is reinforced to help minimize child malnutrition. With the help of ministry of health, mothers should be empowered economically by the government of Kenya so that they can be able to have some source of income to support their children in improving their nutritional status. Since mothers are the ones who make independent decisions for their babies on food choices, this study also recommends creating awareness on the effect of poor dietary practices on underweight, stunting and overweight or obesity and associated health risks. This should aim at improving nutrition knowledge, positive attitudes and appropriate dietary practices.
Authors and Affiliations
Kevin Omondi Obonyo, Wambui Kogi- Makau, Sophia Ngala
Keywords
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- EP ID EP415255
- DOI 10.9790/6737-05034755.
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