The Role of Maternal Literacy and Nutrition Knowledge in Determining Children’s Nutritional Status
Chapter One
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE
- To establish the socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the households.
- To determine the nutritional knowledge of mothers.
- To determine the nutritional status of the children 0-5 years.
- To determine the morbidity of children 0-5 years in the Uyo metropolis
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEWED OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
DH Survey, February-2013: The impact of maternal education on child nutrition, evidence from Malawi, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. The results show that in all three countries the three measures of child nutritional status significantly decrease with increased levels of mother’s education. The analysis also shows that, after controlling for other factors, maternal education reduces the odds of the three measures of child nutrition in all three countries. The threshold level of maternal education above which it significantly improves child stunting and underweight is 9 years of schooling in Malawi and 11 years of schooling in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Syed Sanawar Ali, December 2005: Association of literacy of mothers with malnutrition among Children – in Rural Area of District Malir, Karachi. Mother’s literacy status has a definite association with the malnutrition of the children <0.016), but in significant difference regarding stunting and wasting was found. Farah Batool, Meshal Margrate, Munazza, February 2020- Lahore-PAK: Literacy level of mothers and its association with nutritional status of children under five years of age, in rural area of Lahore. Pure and applied biology results illustrate a significant association among mothers’ literacy level to child nutritional status (p-value 0.020). Majority of the mothers with high school and above educational level have had high proportion of children with standard nutrition status while the children whose mothers had stumpy level of education were presented with stunting. Sukandar Cited by 19-2015 Indonesia: Nutrition knowledge, attitude, and practice of mothers and children nutritional status Improved after five months nutrition education intervention. Based on the General Linear Model analysis, the intervention in the forms of nutrition education had a significant effect on nutritional knowledge, attitude and practices among mothers and nutritional status of children less than five years based on the Z-score of body weight for age. Intervention did not have significant effects on the nutritional status according to Z-score of height for age or Z-score of weight for height. This is possible because the five-month intervention was not yet enough to improve the nutritional status. License 2.0 Germany: Whose education affects a child’s nutritional status? From parents to household’s education. In line with previous studies, we find that one year of mother’s education increases their children’s height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores by nearly 0.025 and 0.015. The presence of another literate household member has a significant, though limited, effect on child height while it has no influence on child weight. Lastly, there is no statistically significant difference in the effect of parents’education on the two indicators while our measure of proximate literacy has a significantly larger impact on child height. Rita Abbi Parul Christian, September 1st, 1988. The role of maternal literacy and nutrition knowledge in determining children’s nutritional status, Parul Christian, Rita Abbi, Sunder Gujral, and Tara Gopaldas, literate mothers had better nutrition knowledge and to elicit specifically the impact of mothers’ nutrition knowledge on their children’s nutritional status, controlling for their literacy status and for family income, which is a well-established factor affecting child nutrition status. Vani K Borooah, 2004-India: The role of maternal literacy in reducing the risk of child malnutrition in India. Literate mothers make more effective use of health-care institutions, like Anganwadis and Hospitals.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitutes of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried to examine the role of maternal literacy and nutrition knowledge in determining children’s nutritional status. Selected residents in Uyo form the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of eighty (80) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which only seventy-seven (77) were returned and validated. This was due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaire. For this study a total of 77 was validated for the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain the role of maternal literacy and nutrition knowledge in determining children’s nutritional status. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of the role of maternal literacy and nutrition knowledge in determining children’s nutritional status
Summary
This study was on the role of maternal literacy and nutrition knowledge in determining children’s nutritional status. Three objectives were raised which included: To establish the socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the households, to determine the nutritional knowledge of mothers, to determine the nutritional status of the children 0-5 years and to determine the morbidity of children 0-5 years in Uyo metropolis. A total of 77 responses were received and validated from the enrolled participants where all respondents were drawn from resident in Uyo. Hypothesis was tested using Chi-Square statistical tool (SPSS).
Conclusion
Generally the nutritional status of the children was normal, except for stunting which was significantly higher than wasting and underweight, though lower than the national coverage. Majority of children suffer from common cold and febrile illness, necessitating their mothers to seek treatment especially from private clinics than public health facilities. Majority of children had received their immunizations by the age of 24 months.
Recommendation
There is need to educate women on allocation of income to health care services just as for food to improve on declining child survival and promote growth development
There is need for further study to establish the reasons why stunting is more prevalent than wasting and underweight in the current study, especially in males than females.
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