Infant nutritional care practices among mothers attending child welfare clinics in Tigania East district, Meru County, Kenya
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Date
2014-10-01
Authors
Kiugu, Kenneth Kirema
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
It has been scientifically proven that breastfeeding and appropriate complimentary
feeding effectively promotes child survival. Despite this evidence, research has
revealed that the practice of breastfeeding and complimentary feeding remains poor in
many parts of the world. This has contributed to the continued existence of poor
indicators of child survival. This study is aimed at identifying the practice and the
factors influencing infant nutritional care among the mothers of infants attending
CWC in the health facilities within Tigania East district. This will include the
identification of the breastfeeding and complimentary feeding practices, identification
of the socioeconomic factors influencing breastfeeding and complimentary feeding
and determination of the level of knowledge on breastfeeding and complimentary
feeding among these mothers. The study is expected to produce important information
that could be useful in planning and running of programs on promotion of infant
nutritional care for enhancement of child survival. This information would be useful
to the administrations of the health facilities, the ministry of health and the NGOs
involved in infant nutritional care promotion programs. Individuals intending to carry
out more studies on infant nutritional care in this area would find this information
important in forming the basis of their studies. The study will employ the cross
sectional descriptive design. Stratified random sampling will be used to ensure
proportional representation of all the levels of health facilities. At the facility level
systematic random sampling will be used to pick the individual participants. A sample
of 188 subjects will be recruited to participate in the study. Data will be collected by
use of semi structured interview schedule with both closed and open headed
questions. This data collection tool will be administered by the researcher/assistant.
The focused group discussions will also be utilised and a focused group discussion
guide will be developed to guide the discussions. A pilot study will be carried out in
Miathene sub district hospital to test the data collection instruments. Data
management will involve the use of SPSS version 17 computer soft ware. Chi square
test will be used to check for relationship of variables. Recordings from the FGDs will
be transcribed and main concepts identified. The qualitative data will be triangulated
with the quantitative data to enhance validity and reliability of the findings. Both
descriptive and inferential statistics will be computed and presented by use of graphs,
pie charts and tables.
Description
A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Public Health (Reproductive Health) in the School of Public Health of Kenyatta University