Effect of Mothers' Nutrition- Related Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on Nutritional Status of their Preschool Children

Abstract

Background: Proper nutrition is crucial for maintaining good health and provide the basis for proper growth and development of children. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of mothers' nutrition-related knowledge, Attitude and practice on nutritional status of their preschool children. Subjects and methods: Design: A descriptive research design was utilized. Setting: The study was conducted at four nursery schools randomly selected from East and West educational administrations of Zagazig City by using a multi-stage cluster sampling. Subjects: A sample of 320 preschool children and their mothers were recruited for the study. Tools for data collection: Tool I: A structured questionnaire consisted of two parts: Socio-demographic data and Children's Eating Habits. Tool II: Nutrition-relatedKnowledge, Attitude and Practices of the mothers. Tool III: Anthropometric Measurements of the children. Results: The study results revealed that 68.4 % of the studied children had unhealthy eating habits. Also, 58.8 % the studied children had healthy weight and only 1.3 % and 1.9 % of them had severe stunting and severe wasting, respectively. As well, 61.2 % of the mothers had satisfactory nutrition-related knowledge and 71.3 % of them had positive nutrition-related attitude. Whereas, 68.7 % of the mothers had good nutrition-related practices. Conclusion: The nutritional awareness of the mothers was relatively moderate and more than half of the studied preschool children maintained healthy weight with a significant majority of the children demonstrated no signs of stunting or wasting. Recommendations: Developing and implementing comprehensive nutrition education programs targeting both mothers and children.