Knowledge on vitamin A rich foods among mothers of preschool children in Nepal: Impacts on public health and policy concerns

Type Journal Article - Science Journal of Public Health
Title Knowledge on vitamin A rich foods among mothers of preschool children in Nepal: Impacts on public health and policy concerns
Author(s)
Volume 2
Issue 4
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
Page numbers 316-322
URL http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20140204.22.pdf
Abstract
This study investigated the association of some soc io-demographic, attitude, service availability and info-communication factors with the knowledge on vi tamin A rich foods among mothers of preschool child ren in Nepal with its impacts on public health and policy concer ns. The analyses demonstrated that about 71% of mot hers were the Hindus ethnic group and 67% lived in nuclear family . A half of the child bearing aged mothers (51%) ha d higher secondary education with nearly 91% of the mothers were aware of vitamin A rich foods. A majority of mothers (53 %) were in workforce and 65% of them had monthly family income above 10,000 Rupees with a good economic status. A lmost 91% of the respondents’ mothers grew vitamin A rich foo ds in their kitchen gardens and took it in their da ily meal as diet. An estimate of 93% mothers attendeda health centre wit h their children during the vitamin A supplementati on campaign. About79% mothers reported that they knew about the first visible symptoms of vitamin A deficiency diso rder (VADD) and 95% mothers knew about the night blindness. The fin dings revealed that in Nepal knowledge on vitamin A rich foods among mother’s of pre-school children is widely inc reasing, and in a particular community VADD has est imated as 9% while at the national level its real magnitude is s till high at 24%. When the prevalence of VADD has b een in a decreasing trend at local level communities then the overall r ate also drops at the national level. Bivariate ana lysis showed that the three selected factors such as mother’s education l evels, mother’s occupations, and monthly family inc ome were significantly and positively associated with the mo ther’s knowledge on vitamin A rich foods in diet, V ADD curable and include green leafy vegetable and yellow fruits in diet.As these significant factors are directly infl uencing the level of awareness and practice of consuming vitamin A rich foods, efforts from the government and non-governme nt organisations are needed to improve the overall conditions of mot hers and allied public policy concerns in Nepal.

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