Knowledge of mothers of under five children regardingidentification and management of selected micronutrient deficiency

INTRODUCTION

Micronutrient deficiencies are determining and aggravating factors for health status and quality of life. Three nutritional problems that have serious consequences are deficiencies of iron, vitamin A and iodine. It is estimated that in today's world, iron deficiency anemia, Blindness due to vitamin A deficiency Iodine deficiency affects children under 5 years of age 1.  

Nutrients are classified in to macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients which constitute carbohydrate, fat, and proteins are required in large quantities and are the building block of the body. Micronutrients consist of vitamins and minerals and though required in very small quantities play an essential role in metabolic pathway and immunity, Micronutrient deficiencies such as nutritional anemia (especially iron deficiency) which is very common in Indian children and vitamin deficiencies like rickets, scurvy and vitamin a deficiencies are some of the common conditions which require prompt attention²

The importance of eliminating micronutrient malnutrition, national nutrition plan of action (1995) sets the ambitious goals of reducing anemia 25%, eliminating blindness due to Vitamine A deficiency and reducing iodine deficiency3. Nutritional anemia is one of India’s major public health problem, all India level data available from NFHS 3 (National Family Health Survey) for children in age group of 6 months to 35 months indicated that overall prevalence of anemia as 70%. Iodine deficiency disorder has been estimated that 200 million people in India are exposed to risk of Iodine deficiency disorder4. thus the investigator felt to assess the knowledge of mothers of under five children regarding identification and management of selected micronutrients deficiencies in children in order to develop and provide health education to prevent those deficiency⁵ .

Objectives of the study

1. To assess the level of knowledge regarding identification of selected micronutrients deficiency in a children among mothers of under five children.

2. To assess the level of knowledge regarding managenment of selected micronutrients deficiency in children among mother’s of under five children.

3. To findout the association between the level of knowledge with selected socio demographic variables.

4. To develop and distribute self instructional module on identification and management of selected micronutrients deficiency in children. 

METHODOLOGY Non experimental descriptive survey design was used to conduct the study. Population included mothers of under five children, non probability convenient sampling technique was used to select 90 mothers residing in selected rural area of Tumkur. Mothers who were willing can read and write kannada and English were included in study, mothers were not willing to participate were excluded .Permission was obtained from the concerned authorities to conduct study and informed consent was obtained from mothers of under five children. Data collection tool was developed by the researcher. data were collected by using self administered questionnaire with two parts part I includes items regarding age religion, educational qualification ,occupation income, types of family and part II consists of multiple choice question to assess the knowledge of mothers of under five children. The total scores of knowledge questionnaire were categorized as inadequate knowledge (<50%), average knowledge (>50-75%), adequate knowledge (>75%). The content validity was done. The reliability of the tool was established by split of method the study using descriptive and inferential statistics. 

RESULTS 

I. Description demographic profile of mothers of under five children.

The majority of the mothers of underfive children (35.6) belongs to age group of 25-34years,and 81% were Hindus only 35.6% of mothers had education equivalent to secondary or more, unemployed of 27% and majority belongs to joint family 63.3%,source of information is mass media 41.2%.

II.Knowledge of mothers of under five children regarding identification and management of selected micro nutrient deficiency.

The findings of the study showed that70% of mothers had moderate knowledge, 26.7% had inadequate knowledge and 3.3% had adequate knowledge.

III Association between knowledge of mothers and selected demographic variables of under five children. 

The chi square analysis showed that there was an association between knowledge of mothers of under five children with selected demographic variables such as age (x2-21.69 p<0.05),Religion (x2_0.773 p>0.05),education(x2 -39.36 p<0.05),occupation (x2 -17.67.36 p<0.05), income (x2 -26.28 p<0.05), type of family (x2 -4.30 p<0.05), and source of information(x2 -18.71 p<0.05). had significant association on knowledge on identification and management of selected micronutrient nutrient deficiency.

DISCUSSION

The present study was conducted to assess the knowledge of mothers of under five children regarding selected micronutrient deficiency in children with selected socio demographic variables. The non experimental descriptive design was adopted for the present study. Non probability Convenience sampling technique was used to select the samples. The data was collected from 90 mothers using a structured interview schedule to assess the level of knowledge. The findings of the study have been discussed with reference to the objectives with the findings of other studies. The data is organized, analyzed and presented in following sections, The characteristics of the demographic variables described in terms of their frequency and percentage distribution which showed that majority of the mothers 35.6% of them were in age group of 20-25 years and 81.1% of them were Hindus, 35.6% of them had the qualification of secondary education , 32.2% of the are laborer,44.4% of their family income lies between Rs 3001-6000, and 63.3% are from joint family,41.2% are got information from information aids & mass media. the overall mean score was 14.46 and standard deviation is 3.28 of level of knowledge of mothers. This indicates that the mothers have moderately adequate knowledge regarding identification and management of selected micronutrient deficiency.

Conclusion

The study found that the mothers of under five children on identification and management of selected micronutrient deficiency was inadequate an educational intervention was planned. An informational booklet on identification and management of selected micronutrient deficiency, so the researcher developed and administered to the mothers of under five children.