Department of Public Health, Om Health Campus, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Centre for Mental Health and Counselling-Nepal.
J Nepal Health Res Counc. 2021 Apr 23;19(1):127-134. doi: 10.33314/jnhrc.v19i1.3371.
Early and late introduction of complementary feeding is associated with increased morbidity and nutritional deficiencies in children. In 2016, the under 5 mortality rate of Nepal was 39 deaths per 1000 live births and around 1 million under 5 children had suffered from chronic malnutrition. The main aim of this study was to identify the level of knowledge and practice regarding complementary feeding among the mothers of children aged group 6 to 24 months in Bhanu Municipality, Tanahu District, Nepal.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 158 mothers of children age group 6 to 24 months from ward number 1 and 2 in Bhanu Municipality, Tanahu District, Nepal. Data collection was done after taking ethical approvalby using a semi-structured questionnaire via face-to-face interviews. Collected data were entered and descriptive analysis was carriedout in Statistical Package for the Social Services version 20. Categorical variables were presented using frequency and percentage. Clopper-pearson method was used to determine 95% confidence interval.
Out of 158 respondents, 26.6% (95%CI:19.9,34.2) had inadequate knowledge, whereas 73.4% (95%CI:65.8, 80.1) had adequate knowledge on complementary feeding. Likewise, the study revealed that 51.9%(95%CI: 43.8, 59.9) did the right practice, while 48.1%(95%CI: 40.1,56.2) were involved in the wrong practice on complementary feeding. Only 39 % mothers gained the knowledge about complementary feeding from the health workers. 2.5% of mother had exclusively breastfed their child up to just 3 months.
Despite the good level of knowledge about complementary feeding, the wrong practice was prevalent in about half of the mothers. As a result, enhancing existing strategies and developing new intervention measures including capacity building of healthworkers to improve child feeding practices must be mandatory actions for the government and policymakers.
早期和晚期引入补充喂养与儿童发病率和营养缺乏有关。2016 年，尼泊尔的 5 岁以下儿童死亡率为每 1000 例活产 39 例，约有 100 万 5 岁以下儿童患有慢性营养不良。本研究的主要目的是确定尼泊尔塔纳胡区班努市 6 至 24 个月儿童的母亲对补充喂养的知识和实践水平。
本研究采用描述性横断面研究，在尼泊尔塔纳胡区班努市第 1 和第 2 病房，对 158 名 6 至 24 个月大的儿童的母亲进行了研究。在获得伦理批准后，通过面对面访谈使用半结构化问卷进行了数据收集。收集的数据在社会服务统计软件包 20 中进行了录入和描述性分析。分类变量用频率和百分比表示。采用 Clopper-Pearson 方法确定 95%置信区间。
在 158 名受访者中，26.6%（95%CI：19.9，34.2）的知识不足，而 73.4%（95%CI：65.8，80.1）的知识充足。同样，研究表明，51.9%（95%CI：43.8，59.9）的人正确实践，而 48.1%（95%CI：40.1，56.2）的人在补充喂养方面的实践不正确。只有 39%的母亲从卫生工作者那里获得了补充喂养方面的知识。2.5%的母亲仅在 3 个月内对孩子进行了纯母乳喂养。
尽管对补充喂养有较好的了解，但仍有一半左右的母亲存在错误的做法。因此，为了提高儿童喂养实践，政府和决策者必须采取强制性措施，加强现有战略，制定新的干预措施，包括对卫生工作者进行能力建设。
