Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
Matern Child Nutr. 2020 Jul;16(3):e12977. doi: 10.1111/mcn.12977. Epub 2020 Mar 26.
Care is important for children's growth and development, but lack or inadequacy of resources for care can constrain appropriate caregiving. The objectives of this study were to examine whether maternal resources for care are associated with care behaviours specifically infant and young child feeding, hygiene, health-seeking, and family care behaviours. The study also examined if some resources for care are more important than others. This study used baseline Alive & Thrive household surveys from Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. Measures of resources for care were maternal education, knowledge, height, nourishment, mental well-being, decision-making autonomy, employment, support in chores, and perceived instrumental support. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations of resources for care with child-feeding practices (exclusive breastfeeding, minimum meal frequency, dietary and diversity), hygiene practices (improved drinking water source, improved sanitation, and cleanliness), health-seeking (full immunization), and family care (psychosocial stimulation and availability of adequate caregiver). The models were adjusted for covariates at child, parents, and household levels and accounted for geographic clustering. All measures of resources for care had positive associations with care behaviours; in a few instances, however, the associations between the resources for care and care behaviours were in the negative direction. Improving education, knowledge, nutritional status, mental well-being, autonomy, and social support among mothers would facilitate provision of optimal care for children.
关爱对于儿童的成长和发展至关重要，但关爱资源的缺乏或不足可能会限制适当的关护行为。本研究的目的是探讨母亲的关爱资源是否与特定的婴幼儿喂养、卫生、寻求医疗服务以及家庭关护行为有关，同时也探讨了一些关爱资源是否比其他资源更为重要。本研究使用了孟加拉国、越南和埃塞俄比亚的 Alive & Thrive 家庭调查的基线数据。关爱资源的衡量指标包括母亲的教育程度、知识水平、身高、营养状况、心理健康、决策自主权、就业情况、家务支持程度以及感知到的工具性支持。采用多元回归分析方法，考察了关爱资源与儿童喂养行为（纯母乳喂养、最低喂养次数、饮食和多样性）、卫生习惯（改善饮用水源、改善卫生设施和清洁度）、寻求医疗服务（完全免疫接种）以及家庭关护（心理社会刺激和充足照顾者的可用性）之间的关联。模型调整了儿童、父母和家庭层面的协变量，并考虑了地理聚类因素。所有关爱资源的衡量指标都与关护行为呈正相关；然而，在某些情况下，关爱资源与关护行为之间的关联呈负向。提高母亲的教育程度、知识水平、营养状况、心理健康、自主权和社会支持，将有助于为儿童提供最佳的关护。
