Knowledge, Attitude and Feeding Practices of Caregivers’ of Malnourished Children Admitted to Savelugu Hospital in the Savelugu/Nanton Municipality

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition has plagued populations of developing countries for decades leading to severe increased risk in morbidity and mortality. Malnutrition has been observed to affect many vulnerable people in communities especially women and children. Individuals in any age group could be malnourished at different times but children under five are more likely to be malnourished because of their nutrient requirements for their developmental processes. The aim of this study is to examine the association between caregivers‟ nutritional knowledge, attitude and feeding practices of malnourished children. Methods: A cross-sectional research design with quantitative approach was used to examine the knowledge, feeding practice and heath seeking behavior of 178 caregivers of malnourished children attending the Savelugu Hospital. A simple random sampling technique was used to obtain caregivers for the study. Demographic characteristics, as well as children‟s anthropometric measures were taken and descriptive analysis done to determine the knowledge, attitude and feeding practices of caregivers. Results: Seventy-three percentage of the caregivers knew that it was appropriate to give colostrum to a new born baby. Also, the majority of 79.2% caregivers indicated the right time to introduce complementary feeding (after six months). Breast milk was known by 65.7% of the caregivers as the best food for children under six months. Caregivers‟ occupation was found to be the only factor significantly associated with their nutritional knowledge (p 0.028). Almost all the caregivers (92.1%) seek prompt treatment for their children when ill and health facility was used by 56.2% as the first point of contact. However, no association was found with health seeking behavior and the nutritional knowledge of caregivers. Exclusive breastfeeding practiced by only 53.3% of the caregivers. The study also revealed that majority of the caregivers had low knowledge on malnutrition or its signs and symptoms. Among the major signs and sympton that caregivers were able identified were body wasting and weight loss. Knowledge on home-based management of malnutrition were also very low among the caregivers, majority of caregivers were found to have little or no knowledge on home-based management of malnutrition. Health workers were also found to be the major sources of information for the caregivers. It was however found that, caregivers little nutritional knowledge impacted positively on their home-based management of malnutrition.

Conclusion: Effective management of Severe Acute Malnutrition is of utmost importance to save thousands of lives of the vulnerable children. Knowledge, attitude, feeding practices and home-based management of caregivers who were mostly mothers and other family members were assessed. These caregivers are at the centre in managing malnourished children thus needs serious education. Their occupation had a positive impact on the nutritional knowledge level. In addition, majority of them had low level of knowledge on child‟s nutrition, this however does not adversely affect caregivers feeding practices. Health facilities were also the first point of contact for caregivers when seeking, but traditional healers were also utilized by significant number of caregivers. Most caregivers had no knowledge on what malnutrition is or its signs and symptoms let alone home-based management of malnourished children, But their nutritional knowledge however had impacted positively on home-based management of malnutrition.