Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Towards Vitamin A Uptake Among Caretakers of Children Below Five Years at China - Uganda Friendship Hospital.
Abstract
This study investigated the knowledge, attitude and practices towards vitamin A uptake among caretakers of children below five years at CUFH. The main objective of the study was to identify knowledge, attitude and practices towards vitamin A uptake among caretakers of children below five years at CUFH.
A cross sectional study was used, using simple random sampling method to select the respondents. Data was collected during the period of 11th July to 1st August 2014 on 246 respondents, the data was collected on the demographic characteristics, the level of knowledge, attitude towards uptake of vitamin A and practices towards uptake of vitamin A using interviewer administered questionnaires. Quantitative data was entered using EPI info and analyzed by using SPSS version 16.0 and presented in tables and graphs results revealed that social demographic factors such as age, level of education and social economic status such as religious affiliation and marital status affected the knowledge of the caretakers unlike gender differences, it was found out that the health worker were the main source of information as 58.5% of the respondents reported having heard about vitamin A from health workers, the care takers also had good knowledge about who is at risk of vitamin A deficiency as 91.9% of the them mentioned children, but they lacked the knowledge on how frequency the children have to get the vitamin A with more than two third of them 71.1% reported they did not know the frequency of vitamin A uptake, and finally most of them did not know what vitamin A means with 57.7% giving wrong answer to the meaning of vitamin A.
It was found out that the religion(X2=48.397, p=0.000), culture (X2=48.397, p=0.000) support from spouses (X2=29.279, p=0.000), places of where the child got vitamin A (X2=2.341, p=0.000) and whether the child had got vitamin A or not (X2=2.226, p=0.000) had a positive impact towards uptake of vitamin A among the caretakers.
The study concluded that the level of knowledge about vitamin A among the caretakers can significantly influence their attitudes and practices towards vitamin A uptake such as how frequently they take their children for vitamin A immunization. It was also concluded that religion, culture, spouses, and places of uptake also determine the uptake of vitamin A. The study recommends increase awareness program on uptake of vitamin A should be emphasized. Religious and local leaders should be involved in programs aimed at increasing awareness on uptake of vitamin A.
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