Effect of health education on the knowledge, attitude and practice of exclusive breast feeding among mothers in rural communities in Enugu-East Local Government Area, Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction : the World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding up to two years or beyond. Promotion of EBF is the single most cost-effective intervention to reduce infant mortality in developing countries. In view of the above, we assessed the effect of health education intervention on exclusive breast feeding. Method : this is a quasi-experimental study design conducted between February and June 2013. Multi-stage sampling method was used to select 384 and 371 respondents for study and control respectively. These were pregnant women from 16 rural communities of Enugu-East LGA of Enugu State at their last month of gestation and had at least breast-fed a baby. They were administered questionnaire on knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) about exclusive breastfeeding. Both groups were monitored after delivery and followed with the KAP questionnaire as they come for the child’s immunizations till 14 weeks. Results : majority of our respondents were between the ages of 20 and 39 years and most of them went beyond primary education. Over 80% of respondents in pre-and post-intervention had heard about EBF among both intervention and control groups. However in-depth knowledge of EBF was lacking. Before intervention 65% of mothers in the intervention group practiced pre-lacteal feeding and 53% in the control while in post-intervention, it was 23% of the intervention group compared to 51% in the control (p-value Conclusion : health education intervention was found to have successfully improved the knowledge and practice of EBF. We therefore recommended health education to improve the practice of EBF among mothers.