Yazew Birhaneslasie Gebeyehu, Birhanu Yohanes Yeneabat, Adane Endalew Daniel, Bishaw Aynalem Zewdu
Department of Nursing, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Injibara University, Injibara, Ethiopia.
Department of Surgical Nursing, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.
Front Nutr. 2025 May 23;19:1481738. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1481738. eCollection 2025.
Incorrect or insufficient child nutrition predisposing for different disease and crisis. Even it is stated at different countries, there are no studies in Ethiopia specifically in the Amara Region Awi Zone public hospitals, Northwest of Ethiopia to investigate parental nutritional awareness in childhood.
To investigate parental nutritional knowledge, attitude, and practice in childhood in Awi Zone public Hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia.
A cross-sectional study design with a purposive convenience sampling method was done among 297 participants. Parents of children with severe acute malnutrition were invited to complete adapted questionnaires. Details of parents' nutritional awareness (knowledge, practice, and attitude) were assessed in face-to-face structured health interviews with the data collectors. The collected data were checked, coded, and entered into Epi-info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 23 for further analysis. Descriptive statistics was applied.
A total of 297 parents were involved with the mean age 29.66 ± 6.27 years. About 93% of parents were heard about their child's nutrition and 66.6% resided in rural. Overall parent's good knowledge, favorable attitude, and poor practice toward child nutrition were 50.8%, 21.2%, and 89.6%, respectively. Health institution delivery, 1.61 and 4.39 times were associated with Knowledge and attitude, respectively and good practice 2.42 times associated with Knowledge. Children with comorbidities were 4.7 and 2.32 time associated with parents' attitude and practice, respectively.
Parental awareness toward child nutrition is considered a significant target for public health interventions. Delivery site, presence of comorbidities, and practice were the significant factors associated with parents' awareness. The majority of parents were aware of the positive impact of child nutrition on overall wellbeing. The State of Awi Zone, Northwest Ethiopia, would be cost-effective to train and professionally develop the Awi Zone public Hospitals and primary healthcare workers to be more experts in tackling parents' nutritional awareness by providing family counseling.
儿童营养不正确或不足会引发不同疾病和危机。即便不同国家都有相关表述，但在埃塞俄比亚，特别是在埃塞俄比亚西北部的阿马拉地区阿维地带的公立医院，尚无研究调查儿童期家长的营养意识。
调查埃塞俄比亚西北部阿维地带公立医院儿童期家长的营养知识、态度和行为。
采用目的便利抽样法进行横断面研究设计，共纳入297名参与者。邀请患有重度急性营养不良儿童的家长填写改编后的问卷。通过与数据收集人员进行面对面的结构化健康访谈，评估家长营养意识（知识、行为和态度）的详细情况。对收集到的数据进行检查、编码，录入Epi-info 7版本，并导出至SPSS 23版本进行进一步分析。应用描述性统计。
共有297名家长参与，平均年龄为29.66±6.27岁。约93%的家长听说过孩子的营养问题，66.6%居住在农村。总体而言，家长对儿童营养的良好知识、积极态度和不良行为分别为50.8%、21.2%和89.6%。医疗机构分娩与知识和态度分别有1.61倍和4.39倍的关联，良好行为与知识有2.42倍的关联。患有合并症的儿童与家长的态度和行为分别有4.7倍和2.32倍的关联。
家长对儿童营养的意识被视为公共卫生干预的重要目标。分娩地点、合并症的存在和行为是与家长意识相关的重要因素。大多数家长意识到儿童营养对整体健康的积极影响。在埃塞俄比亚西北部的阿维地带，培训并专业发展阿维地带公立医院和基层医疗工作者，使其成为通过提供家庭咨询来解决家长营养意识问题的专家，将具有成本效益。
