ASSOCIATION BETWEEN MOTHER’S NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE IN CHILDCARE PRACTICES AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF 6-59 MONTHS CHILDREN OF PATHARI SANISCHARE MUNICIPALITY, MORANG

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the nutritional status of 6-59 months children of Pathari Sanischare Municipality, Morang and its association with mother’s knowledge in childcare practices. Pathari Sanischare was selected by purposive sampling method whereas simple random sampling technique was used to select ward no.6 from Pathari Sanischare municipality. Similarly, 131 children were selected from household by simple random sampling technique. The child's anthropometric measurement (height, weight, MUAC) was taken to determine if the children were wasted, stunted, or underweight based on World Health Organization (WHO) reference. Data were collected by using pretested, semi structured questionnaires to obtain information on socio-economic and demographic characteristics, child characteristics, child caring practices, maternal characteristics, mother’s knowledge in childcare practices and household characteristics. Collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25 and WHO Anthro 3.3.2 version. Chi-square test and Fischer exact test were used to test the significant association between factors of malnutrition. The prevalence of wasting, stunting and underweight was 19%, 22.1% and 24.4% respectively. Wasting and underweight were found to be higher in female children whereas stunting was higher in male children. Prevalence of wasting was high among 36-47 months of children (43.4%), stunting was high among 24-35 months of children (38.4%) and the prevalence of underweight was high among the children of age group 48-59 months (42.9%). Majority of mothers (54.2%) had average knowledge score followed by good knowledge score (23.7%) and poor knowledge score (22.1%) regarding childcare practices. Family type, toilet facility in house and kitchen garden were significantly associated with wasting (P<0.05). Family type, house structure and kitchen garden were significantly associated with underweight (P<0.05). Similarly, ethnicity, birth weight of a child, house structure, use of maad in the household and drinking water were significantly associated with stunting (P<0.05).