Assessment of Mothers’ Knowledge on Protein Energy Malnutrition for Children Under Five Years of Age at Selected Health Centers in Ife Central Local Government Area
Chapter One
Objectives of the study
General objective
The general objective of this survey is to find out the mothers knowledge on protein energy malnutrition in child care practice and to determine nutritional status of children under five years of age.
Specific objectives
- To determine the nutritional status of Children in Ife central LGA aged under five years of age lived in Osun state.
- To assess the knowledge on protein energy malnutrition level of mothers in recommended childcare practices relating to nutrition.
- To assess the belief and feeding practice of mothers of (under five years of age)
- To identify the factors which are responsible for malnutrition.
CHAPTER TWO
Literature review
Mother nutrition knowledge
A mother is the principal provider of the primary care that her child needs during the first five years of life. Nutritional awareness of mothers plays an important role in the health of children aged 0-5 years. The type of care she provides depends to a large extent on her knowledge and understanding of some aspects of basic nutrition and health care. Mothers educational level, position, health and nutritional status is central to the quality of life and is a key ingredient of her childs health, nutritional status, behavioral and other aspects of child welfare in developing countries (Christian et al., 1988). Knowledge of mothers has an important role in the maintenance of nutritional status of the children. Adequate knowledge regarding various aspects of feeding practices during pregnancy and during infancy is very essential especially among females as they are going to influence the feeding practices of this vulnerable group. The knowledge of child nutrition and caring practices can be expected to have significant bearing on their children‟s nutritional status but conflicting results have been reported in this regard whereas some studies have observed a positive relationship between childhood malnutrition and maternal knowledge and beliefs regarding nutrition (Kaur et al., 2015).
A study in Rural Ile Ife of Western Nigeria shows that child malnutrition has significant relation with maternal education, socioeconomic status and feeding practices. The education of mothers has several positive effects on care of children in comparison to mother with no education. The educated mother utilizes the health care facility, discusses more about the illness of the child with health care provider and follows the instructions about feeding and caring practices given by the health workers. Faulty feeding practices like late initiation of breast feeding, starting artificial feeding before 6 months and early and late start of complementary foods causes malnutrition (Chhetri, 2005).
Study conducted in Nigeria revealed that most of the mothers had insufficient nutrition knowledge in which only 20% of mothers had good knowledge on health and nutrition of their children, 44.6% had fair knowledge and 35.5% had poor knowledge score (Jemide et al., 2016).
Education status of Nigerian mother
Women who receive even a minimal education are generally more aware than those who have no education of how to utilize available resources for the improvement of their own nutritional status and that of their families. Education may enable women to make independent decisions, to be accepted by other household members, and to have greater access to household resources that are important to nutritional status (Girma and Genebo, 2002). Several researches show that there is a strong linkage between maternal education and children‟s health. Children‟s born to educated women suffer less from malnutrition which manifests as underweight, wasting, and stunting in children. In general, the higher the level of education of a woman, the more knowledgeable she is about the use of health facilities, family planning methods, and the health of her children. NDHS 2011 shows that 40% of women age 15-49 have never been to school, 12% have only some primary education, 6% have completed primary school, 24% have only some secondary education, 11% have completed secondary school, and 8% have a secondary education or higher. Older women and those who reside in rural areas are most likely to have no education (Survey, 2011).
Advertisements
CHAPTER THREE
Methodology
Research design
The study carried out was analytical cross-sectional survey of under-five year age Children in Ife central LGA living in Osun state, Nutritional survey of under-five children in Selected health centers of Osun state consisted of:
- Household survey with the help of questionnaire.
- Anthropometric measurements of under five years of age children.
- The 24 hours dietary recall
Study variables
The study variables were divided into two categories:
a. Dependent variables
- Stunting (height for age): Height for age below -2 SD from the National center for Health Statistics/WHO reference median value (NCHS/WHO).
- Wasting (weight for height): Weight for height below -2 SD from the NCHS/WHO reference median value.
- Underweight (weight for age): Weight for age below -2 SD from the NCHS/WHO reference median value.
b. Independent variables:
- Socioeconomic and demographic factors: head of household, ethnicity, familysize, family type, income, occupation, education.
- Maternal characteristics: age, number of children
- Children characteristics
- Feeding practices (breast feeding, weaning, )
- Illness(common cold, fever, diarrhea, )
Population distribution
According to 2006 census, the total population of Ife was 35,839. Representing 0.16% of total populations.
Target population
The measurement is taken under five years of age Children in Ife central LGA who are living in Osun state and interview was taken from mothers.
CHAPTER FOUR
Results and discussion
The survey was carried out in Osun state, Osun state from October 16 to 22. The study was mainly focused on the association between mother‟s knowledge on protein energy malnutrition in childcare practice and nutritional status of under five years of age of age children in Selected health centers of Osun. Two main approaches of this study is, anthropometry to obtain data regarding Anthropometric measurement and household survey to collect information regarding various nutritional and socioeconomic variables. The collected data were analyzed using WHO Anthro 3.2.2 (Blössner et al., 2010) and SPSS version 20 (Page et al., 2003) and results were obtained and conclusion was drawn. Which is discussed in the following section.
CHAPTER FIVE
Conclusions and recommendations
Conclusions
This study has generally assessed the mothers‟ knowledge on protein energy malnutrition in childcare practices and nutritional status of under five years of age Children in Ife central LGA in Osun state. Based on the study the conclusions are:
The prevalence of underweight, wasting and stunting in children under five years of age Children in Ife central LGA were 27.8%, 19.4% and 23.6% respectively. The prevalence of malnutrition was similar in both sexes.
Wasting and underweight was highest in the age group between 24-35 months while stunting was highest in the age group between 6-11 months.
Calorie intake by the childrens had significant relationship with child malnutrition (stunting, wasting and underweight).
The duration of breastfeeding, reasons of malnutrition, food during diarrhea and mothers knowledge on protein energy malnutrition score are significantly associated with wasting.
Having kitchen garden at home has significant association with stunting.
Iron folate intake during pregnancy, reason of malnutrition and mothers knowledge on protein energy malnutrition score has significant association with underweight.
The determinants of malnutrition like mothers education, marriage age, Burukutu and family type though considered as important factors affecting nutritional status of under five children were not significantly associated with any forms of malnutrition in this study.
In the nutrition knowledge score, about 63.2% of the mothers had average knowledge score. This indicates that the knowledge on protein energy malnutrition of the mothers was in average range. Nutrition knowledge score was found to be significantly associated with wasting and underweight while there is no significant association between stunting.
Recommendations
Based on the results of this study following recommendations could be made in order to improve the nutritional status of children under-five years in the survey area.
- There is the need for intervening nutritional and health education as educated mother is most likely to provide better care in terms of good nutrition and better hygiene which in turn improve the nutritional status.
- Promotion of locally available nutritious food and practice of kitchen garden at home should be encouraged to the mothers.
- Supplementary feeding programs for children under-five through network of childcare centers should be organize to improve nutritional status of children.
- Similar cross – sectional descriptive or longitudinal survey can be conducted to determine the magnitude and distribution of malnutrition and other probable causes of malnutrition.
References
- Abrams, A. S. (2017). Zinc deficiency and supplementation in children and adolescents. Retrieved from www.uptodate.com. (Last update Jun 15, 2016).
- Ansari, M., Ibrahim, M. I., Hassali, A. M., Shankar, R. P., Koirala, A. and Thapa, J. N. (2012). Mothers‟beliefs and barriers about childhood diarrhea and its management in Osun state. BMC Research Notes. 5, 6.
- Ansari, M., Palaian, S., Izham, M. and Ibrahim, M. (2009). The role of mothers in the management of childhood diarrhoea in Nigeria. Australasian Medical Journal. 14 (1), 235-238.
- Asfaw, M., Wondaferash, M., Taha, M. and Dube, L. (2015). Prevalence of undernutrition and associated factors among children aged between six to fifty nine months in Bule Hora district, South Ethiopia. BMC Public Health.
- Babatunde, O. R. (2011). Prevalence and determinants of malnutrition among under-five children of farming households in Kwara state, Nigeria. Journal of Agricultural Sciences. 3 (3), 173-181.
- Bauer, B. (2002). Nutritional assessment of children enrolled in a structured childcare setting. Master in Food and Nutritional Science Thesis. University of Wisconsin- Stou,
- Bhattachan, K. B., Sunar, T. B. and Bhattachan, Y. K. (2009). Caste-based Discrimination in Nigeria. Indian Institute of Dalit Studies. 3, 1-48.
- Blössner, M. and Onis, M. (2005). Malnutrition; Quantifying the health impact at national and local levels. Environmental Burden of Disease series. (12), 43.
