Parental Awareness And Strategies For Effective Prevention Of Childhood Under Nutrition Conditions

Abstract

Background: Childhood undernourishment has been a significant health issue in developing areas, which has large impacts on growth, cognitive as well as health in the long-term. The awareness of parents is significant in early prevention and management. Objective: This research analyzes parental awareness level and comes up with effective measures of preventing childhood undernutrition. Methodology: The cross-sectional study was done among 150 parents of children whose ages were less than five years. Structured questionnaires on the knowledge, feeding practices and preventive behaviors were used to gather data. Correlation analysis and descriptive statistics were used. Findings: The findings revealed that moderate awareness was found to be the case in 62% of parents with only 28% of the parents showing high awareness. Parental knowledge was found to have a significant positive relationship (p < 0.05) with appropriate feeding practices. Some of the important effective actions were exclusive breastfeeding, timely complementary feeding, hygiene and frequent monitoring of growth. Conclusion: Community-based education and awareness campaigns can greatly decrease child undernutrition. Sustainable prevention will require particular interventions aimed at nutrition education and behavior modification.