Association of mothers' child feeding knowledge, attitude, and practices with nutritional status of children under the age of five in a Malaysian fishing community: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Mothers' nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and practices are critical to ensuring that they can feed their children in accordance with proper child feeding guidelines, hence preventing undernourished children. However, there has been little research into mothers' knowledge of feeding, attitudes, and practises in fishing communities, notably in Terengganu, Malaysia. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to analyse mothers' children's nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and practices, as well as their relationship to the nutritional status of fishermen's children under the age of five in Terengganu. This study was conducted through a home visit with 60 mothers and 60 children aged 2-4 years (55.0% girls, n = 33; 45.0% boys, n = 27). Mothers' nutritional knowledge, attitude, and practice were examined using adapted questionnaires, while child nutritional status was measured using height-for-age and BMI-for-age assessments. All of the mothers had an educational background, with at least 5.0% (n = 3) attending primary school, 85% (n = 51) attending secondary school, and 10.0% (n = 6) finishing higher tertiary education, as per results. According to the data, most mothers have good knowledge (68.3%, n = 41), a positive attitude (71.7%, n = 43), and good practises (71.7%, n = 43) when it comes to child feeding. The majority of children had normal BMI (63.3%) and height for their age (91.7%). There was no relationship found between the mother's child feeding knowledge (p = 0.342, r = -0.125), attitude (p = 0.357, r = 0.121), and practises (p = 0.587, r = 0.073) and the children's BMI-for-age. Mothers' knowledge of child feeding (p = 0.627, r = 0.064), attitude (p = 0.9982, r = -0.002), and practises (p = 0.709, r = -0.049) were likewise unrelated to children's height-to-age. A comprehensive approach including parents, communities and government agencies should be established to enhance mothers' child-feeding knowledge, attitudes, and practises, particularly among low-income families.