Abstract:
Background: Malnutrition is one of the major causes of child death. Maternal application of the knowledge of growth monitoring and nutritional status in children helps build strong immune system, prevent illnesses among children which and in turn lead to optimum health and finally promote national development. The WHO recommends that adequate knowledge on growth monitoring charts by mothers is necessary to assist them to have clear understanding of the pattern of growth of their children and take necessary actions in the care of their children to promote their health. The main objective of this study is to determine the association between maternal knowledge on growth monitoring charts and nutritional status of children 0-24months in Akim Oda in the Birim Central Municipality.
Methods: A facility based cross-sectional quantitative study was carried out involving 419 mothers with children aged 0-24months who were attending Child Welfare clinic (CWC) at three health facilities at Akim Oda. Consecutive sampling technique was used in selecting respondents. On each clinic day, eligible mothers with their children were identified in the morning after the health talk, every mother and child was selected for the study taking into account when each mother reported to the facility for care. Among those who met the inclusion criteria, thirty mothers were selected on each clinic day at the three selected sites and interviewed until the required sample size was obtained. Descriptive, bivariate analyses (binary logistic regression), and a multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to describe important characteristics and examine the predictors of knowledge
Results: The result showed that 36.3% had high knowledge on growth monitoring charts and nutritional status of children. Several factors were associated with knowledge on growth monitoring charts. These were the educational level (AOR=1.80; 95% CI=1.25-3.83), number of deliveries (AOR = 0.32; 95% CI=0.19-0.88), marital status (AOR= 2.15; 95% CI=1.28-6.75), age of child (AOR=0.52; 95% CI=0.28-0.84) and sex of current child (AOR = 0.53; 95% CI=0.33-0.86).
Conclusion: Mothers with adequate knowledge on growth monitoring and nutritional status of their children is relatively low. Awareness creation and sensitization on the mass media about growth monitoring and nutritional requirements of children for appropriate nutritional status is urgently needed.
