Abstract
Abstract Objectives Efforts to improve infant and young child (IYC) feeding practices include the use of nutrition social behaviour change communication (SBCC) among caregivers of children under 5y. We assessed the association between monthly participation in community-level nutrition group meetings on caregiver health and nutrition knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPs). Methods Data from community-based cross-sectional survey conducted in Eastern and Southern Highland Zones of Tanzania, were used. Indices were developed for caregivers’ knowledge on nutrition, health-and-childcare, household and young child dietary diversity, and vitamin A intakes. Impact of the number of nutrition meeting attendance on caregiver knowledge and practices scores were examined using multiple regression analyses controlling for potential caregiver socio-demographic confounders such as maternal age, marital status, education, employment, household size, and household wealth index. Results Out of 547 caregivers surveyed, 49.7% attended nutrition group meetings and received information on nutrition SBCC while 50.3% did not. Overall, 28% of participating women had a moderate level of nutrition knowledge, 62% had high level of vitamin A knowledge, and 57% had high level of health-and-childcare knowledge. Participation in nutrition group meetings was significantly associated with health-and-childcare knowledge score, household and young child dietary diversity scores, and household and young child vitamin A intake; magnitude of the associations were greater for caregivers who attended at least four meetings. Conclusions Our findings emphasize the need for programmes that seek to address the issues present in the use of nutrition SBCC at community level to improve maternal/caregiver KAPs and subsequently to improve nutrition status of infant and young children. Funding Sources UKAID.
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