A SURVEY OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE ABOUT COMPLEMENTARY FEEDING AND WEANING AMONG MOTHERS ATTENDING PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTERS, YASUJ AND ITS OUTSKIRTS, 2017

Background and Aim: Early onset practices of complementary feeding and weaning have been reported in all middle-eastern countries. Thus we surveyed the knowledge, attitude and practice of complementary feeding and weaning among mothers who had child between 6 to 24 months of age and attended 8 primary health care centers in Yasuj and its outskirts in 2017.Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 313 mothers were selected by non-probability convenient sampling. We used a self-constructed reliable and valid KAP questionnaire. 1 point was given to each correct answer of knowledge (8 statements). A 5-item Likert’s scale was used for attitude statements (6 statements). The most common answer for questions of practice section were reported in percentage. For data analysis, descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, cross tables were used by SPSS 23. Results: The mean ± SD for overall knowledge level was 5.7 ± 1.5 out of 8 and attitude level was 23.1 ± 2.8 out of 30. The lowest level of knowledge was about how to start complementary feeding and introducing new foods to the baby’s diet, appropriate way of weaning and disadvantages of early onset complementary feeding before first 6 months of child’s age. 89.7% of urban mothers and 93.5% of mothers from outskirts had begun complementary feeding at the end of 6 months postpartum. Conclusion: In this study, the overall knowledge and attitude score about complementary feeding and weaning was above 70%. The prevalence of starting complementary feeding after complete 6 months was over 90%.

کلیدواژه ها:

Complementary feeding ، Weaning ، Knowledge ، Attitude ، Practice