Assessing the relationship between mother's nutrition knowledge and her child's nutritional status in Naguru Parish, Nakawa Division, Kampala City

Abstract

Introduction: Developing countries face a huge burden of different forms of malnutrition. Previous studies in Uganda focused on assessing the nutrition status of children leaving out an important aspect of mothers’ nutritional knowledge. This influences the dietary intake and feeding practices of children which in turn affects the nutrition status of children due to differences in nutrient intakes. This study will generate important information to create an understanding of the current mother’s nutrition knowledge in Naguru parish. Objective: To assess mothers’ nutrition knowledge and nutritional status of children under five years in Naguru Parish, Nakawa Division Method: A quantitative study was carried out in Naguru Parish, Nakawa division in Kampala District from May-June 2022 among 351 mothers and their children under 5 years of age. We used interviewer-guided questionnaires were used to collect data on mothers’ knowledge of child feeding and anthropometry to capture children’s weight and height measurements. Data was managed using STATA version 13. During univariate analysis of social demographic factors and mothers’ nutritional knowledge, data was analysed in tables and graphs whereas for bivariate analysis, we used Pearson’s Chis square χ2 to assess and the association between maternal nutrition knowledge and other variables of interest. Results: In this study, 56.70 % of the mothers were knowledgeable. The prevalence of stunting, underweight, and wasting was 54.13%, 7.69%, and 7.41% respectively. There was a significant association between occupation (p=0.030), education (p=0.001), marital status (p=0.002) of mothers, and nutritional knowledge. There was no significant association between knowledge and nutritional status. Conclusion and recommendation; The majority of the mothers (43.3%) were not knowledgeable and the prevalence of stunting (54.13%) among children under five was too high. Knowledge of mothers was not associated with the nutritional status of children. Occupation, education, and marital status of the mothers are associated with their knowledge about child nutrition. This study recommends that nutrition campaigns should be put in place to create awareness about the effects of undernutrition in children