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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1413867
This article is part of the Research Topic The First 1000 Days: Window of Opportunity for Child Health and Development View all 8 articles

Influence of mothers and frontline functionaries' Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on Infant and Young Child Feeding practices and Child nutrition: A Cross-Sectional Study from Aspirational Districts of Assam, India

Provisionally accepted
Sonali Randhawa Sonali Randhawa 1Manisha Choudhury Manisha Choudhury 2*Devika Gali Choudhary Devika Gali Choudhary 3Ramnath Ballala Ramnath Ballala 4Shailendra Hegde Shailendra Hegde 5PRIYANKA BARMAN PRIYANKA BARMAN 6Vishal Dogra Vishal Dogra 5
  • 1 Health System Governance. Health Systems Transformation Platform, New Delhi, India, NEW DELHI, India
  • 2 Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam, India
  • 3 Piramal Foundation, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, TELENGANA, India
  • 4 Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital (SATH) Head, Assam, Piramal Swasthya Management and Research Institute, Guwahati, Assam, India, Guwahati, India
  • 5 Piramal Swasthya Management & Research Institute, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
  • 6 National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management, Thanjavur (NIFTEM-T), Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of mothers and frontline health workers (FLWs) on optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF), are essential to reduce undernutrition and associated morbidities among under-five children. The study assessed the KAP of mothers (of 0 to 60 months old children) and FLWs on recommended IYCF practices; the association of mother's KAP with their demographic characteristics and children's nutritional outcome, and the prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight among 0 to 60 months old children in five high focused districts of Assam. Data were collected from 389 mothers, 456 children, and 138 FLWs using standard method. Out of 389 mothers, 29% had good knowledge, attitude, and practices, whereas 42% scored average and 29% had poor KAP towards IYCF practices. The mean KAP score increased significantly with improvement in variables like community, language, education level, monthly income, living conditions, etc. (p < 0.01). Less than half of the children were stunted (40%), one-third had wasting (28%) and about 43% were underweight. The odds of children developing stunting was 2.05 (CI = 1.04 -4.02) times when the mother's KAP score was less than 40% compared to those who had more than 60%, and similar findings were reported for wasting and underweight. Out of 138 FLWs, 56% scored good KAP score, 30% average, and 14% poor.

    Keywords: IYCF practices1, Knowledge2, attitude3, Practices4, undernutrition5, aspirational districts6, Assam7

    Received: 08 Apr 2024; Accepted: 19 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Randhawa, Choudhury, Choudhary, Ballala, Hegde, BARMAN and Dogra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Manisha Choudhury, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, 785001, Assam, India

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