A Study to Assess the Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Dietary Practices in Prevention of Malnutrition Among Mothers with Under Five Children at Selected Area Jaipur

Abstract

Introduction: Healthy citizens are essential to the nation’s health. A healthy child grows into a healthy adult. Children are invaluable assets, and if the country disregards their health, it will have a population of sick people. Because the foundation for our lifetime, health, strength, intelligence, and energy is established during this time, the nutrition of children under five is extremely important. As the new millennium dawns, India is confronted with a weight of illnesses where dietary inadequacies are more prevalent. and mortality, it also permanently impairs the physical and mental development of children who survive.
Methodology: The study was conducted at Kheri Gukulpura and Ashawala village of Jaipur. The target population was mothers with children under five from selected areas of Jaipur. The research scholar selected a sample of 400 mothers with children under five from selected areas of Jaipur. Non-Probability convenient sampling technique is used in this project to select the area as well as the samples.
Results: - In this study, result shows that the mean knowledge (Mean ± SD) score of studied mothers with children under five found to be 9.39 ± 2.82 points. It was identified that 154 (38.5%) mothers with children under five observed with an average (9-16) level of knowledge. Further, analysis indicated that 13 (3.3%) mothers with children under five showed a good (17-24) level of knowledge about Dietary practices in the prevention of malnutrition. Mean attitude score (Mean ± SD) of studied mothers with children under five found to be 22.02 ± 7.44 points. I revealed that there was a significant positive correlation (r = 0.50, p <0.05) between knowledge and attitude regarding dietary practices in the prevention of malnutrition, which indicates that as the knowledge level increases, the attitude level also increases.
Conclusion- There will be no significant correlation between the knowledge and attitude scores regarding dietary practices in the prevention of malnutrition among mothers with children under five is rejected. There will be a significant correlation between the knowledge and attitude scores regarding dietary practices in the prevention of malnutrition among mothers with children under five. There will be no significant association between the knowledge scores regarding dietary practices in prevention of malnutrition among mothers of children under five and their selected demographic (age, educational status, occupation, number of children in family, types of family and sources of information) variables.