Browsing by Author "Shio, Jasmine"

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    The impact of mother’s nutrition knowledge on the health of children
    (University of Dar es salaam, 2010) Shio, Jasmine
    Children below five years of age in most of the developing countries like Tanzania are in great risk of death caused by various diseases including nutrition related diseases. When the children are poorly fed they will lack various mineral and nutrients thus increasing their possibility of being undernourished. In this context the mothers who are the primary caretakers of the children below five years of age must have a clear knowledge on nutrition so that they can provide their children with all groups of food to prevent them from nutrition related diseases which can lead to death. The main objective of this study was to examine the existing relationship between mother’s nutrition knowledge and the children’s health. The study was held in Moshi Rural district in Kilimanjaro region from November to December 2009 where 266 respondents who were women with children below five years of age from eight randomly selected wards. The data was collected at the MCH using questionnaires where the information about mother’s nutrition knowledge and the child’s health was obtained. Interviews were used to gather information from the health workers about diseases common to the children in the district. The data entry, organising and analysis was done using SPSS version 11.5.The results obtained show that about 81 percent of women had nutrition knowledge whether from the school, clinic, or both where 76 percent of all the respondent had their children in a very good health status, 24 percent in bad health status and only 0.4 percent had their children in a worse health status. Mothers with nutrition knowledge had children with a good health that is 97 percent while those with no nutrition knowledge had children with poor health that is 78 percent. Basing on the result the study suggested that mothers should be endowed with nutrition knowledge so that they can improve their children’s dietary intakes to control mortality caused by nutrition related diseases in the country.