European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE ON SUPPLEMENTARY FOODS OF PREGNANT MOTHERS ATTENDING REPRODUCTIVE CHILD HEALTH CARE PROGRAMME

Priyanka Jain* and Rekha Sharma

ABSTRACT

Well-being of child is directly related to the nutritional status of the infant. Malnutrition rate in children increases between 6 and 18 months - the period of complementary feeding. Appropriate complementary feeding promotes growth and prevents stunting among children aged between 6 and 24 months. The present study intended at assessment of knowledge of pregnant mothers attending RCH on supplementary foods. About 300 pregnant women in third trimester of pregnancy were selected from ten Anganwadi Centres of Nagpur City by purposive sampling method. The pre and post-test research design was used. A pretested structured questionnaire was used to assess the nutrition knowledge of expectant mothers before and after nutrition education programme. The questionnaire had ten questions related to supplementary feeding. The nutrition education was imparted by the researcher using charts, posters, demonstration of low cost nutritious recipes and a cooked balanced diet for the pregnant women. The results of the study showed a significant increase (p=0.000) during the post-test in mothers knowledge on supplementary foods. The mean difference between the pre and post test scores showed lowest increase for question on „need of modified family diet‟ (0.167) and highest for the question regarding „breastfeeding infants during supplementary feeding‟ (0.600). Mother‟s occupation (p=0.040), family size (p=0.007) and gravida (p = 0.048) showed significant difference between the means of the pre-test scores of mothers for knowledge regarding supplementary foods. The mean post test scores showed significant difference with respect to mother‟s education (p=0.012), occupation (p=0.000), father‟s occupation (p=0.040), father‟s income (p=0.000), family size (p=0.000), family type (p=0.032) and number of children (p=0.021). It can be strongly concluded that maternal literacy is a first crucial step for decreasing infant mortality rate.

Keywords: Maternal awareness, Nutrition Education, Reproductive and Child Health Care Programme (RCH), Supplementary foods.