CAREGIVERS NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE, DIETARY PRACTICES AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN ATTENDING NAROK COUNTY REFERRAL HOSPITAL, KENYA

Abstract

The attainment of optimal child nutrition still remains a fundamental challenge in many countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is especially among the most affected regions globally. The situation could partially be addressed by improving the nutritional knowledge of caregivers as well as their dietary practices. However, information on caregivers’ level of nutrition knowledge and their dietary practices is largely lacking in most parts of Africa including Kenya. The purpose of this study was to examine the level of caregivers’ nutritional knowledge, dietary practices and the nutritional status of children 6 to 23 months attending Narok County Referral Hospital. This research adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design. A sample size of 108 children aged 6 to 23 months and caregivers were purposively recruited. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS version 25 and ENA SMART softwares, chi-square and correlation analysis were used to analyse relationship between different variables. Approvals were obtained from institute of postgraduate studies (IPGS), Kabarak University Research Ethics Committee (KUREC), National Commission for Science, Technology & Innovation (NACOSTI) and Narok County Referral Hospital. Majority of the caregivers (91.7%) were mothers and fell within the 19-25 years (44.4%), while 35.2% were within 26-35 years. Caregivers had low knowledge (27.8%) and 37.0% had high knowledge, Moderate knowledge levels were exhibited by 14.8% and 9.3% had very low knowledge. The results indicated a variation in dietary practices where 68.5% of children were still breastfeeding at the time of data collection; 88% of children were exclusively breastfed during the first 6 months of age. Cereals were consumed more than four times a week by 85.2% of the children although majority of them (76.9%) did not meet the minimum dietary score. The overall prevalence of wasting, underweight and stunting was 29.6%, 15.7% and 23.1% respectively. The occurrence of stunting in children was related to dietary practices (χ2=0.245, p-value=0.011) and timing of complementary feeding displayed a moderate positive correlation with WAZ (r=0.305, p=0.001). Nutrition knowledge showed a low positive correlation with HAZ (r=0.235, p=0.014). Height-for-Age Z-score (HAZ) significantly had higher percentages of normal HAZ compared to stunted children (p-value: 0.05). In conclusion caregivers’ nutritional knowledge and dietary practices varied across the region and contributed to nutrition outcome of the children in dietary diversity, food adequacy and nutrient intake. Therefore, the study recommends targeted and continuous nutrition education to care-givers of children of this age group.