Abstract
Background: Nutrient inadequacy during childbearing age and pregnancy is a major cause of intrauterine growth retardation of the foetus leading to other long-term health problems such as non-communicable diseases in later years. More so, child malnutrition and mortality can be majorly attributed to improper infant and young child feeding practices.
 Objective: This study was carried out to assess the effectiveness of nutrition education intervention on maternal nutritional knowledge among women of childbearing age in Ikenne Local Government Area of Ogun State.
 Materials and Method: A descriptive cross-sectional research design was employed for this study and 115 women of childbearing age were selected using simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using a validated questionnaire developed from the “Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices” nutrition education handbook by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which was administered pre and post the nutrition education. Data were vetted, coded and subjected to analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Tests were statistically significant at p ≤ 0.05.
 Results: Below average (42.6%) of the respondents had good nutritional knowledge on breastfeeding, 42.6% had average on complementary feeding, while majority (61.8%) had good knowledge on health practices in the pre-test. The post-intervention test revealed significant improvement in their knowledge where 74.8%, 74.0% and 77.4% had good nutritional knowledge on breastfeeding, complementary feeding and health practices respectively. Testing the effectiveness of the nutrition education intervention, there was a significant difference between the pre and post nutritional knowledge test scores (p-0.00).
 Conclusion: The study population had an average knowledge on breastfeeding and complementary feeding before the nutrition education intervention. The post-education tests result showed improvements on their knowledge from average to good on all the practices. This shows that the nutrition education was effective in improving their maternal nutritional knowledge.
Highlights
The main goal of nutrition education is to help people understand important information about health and focus on practical measures to address nutrition needs, as well as the benefits of behavioural changes (1)
Below average (42.6%) of the respondents had good nutritional knowledge on breastfeeding, 42.6% had average on complementary feeding, while majority (61.8%) had good knowledge on health practices in the pretest
Post-tests on complementary feeding practices shows that the respondents with poor knowledge were reduced by 9.6%, while the respondents with good knowledge increased to 74.0%
Summary
Information and skills concerning infant and young child feeding practices acquired by women within this age category influences how she will provide nutritional care and practices for the young child, determine the nutritional status of the child and the likelihood of developing nutritional related chronic diseases later in life (5) It has been reported in previous studies (6, 7 and 8) that there is a correlation between nutritional knowledge of the mothers and the nutritional status, knowledge and habits of their children. There is a need to assess the effectiveness of nutrition education intervention on maternal nutritional knowledge among women of childbearing age (15-49 years) in Ikenne Local Government Area of Ogun State. The post-intervention test revealed significant improvement in their knowledge where 74.8%, 74.0% and 77.4% had good nutritional knowledge on breastfeeding, complementary feeding and health practices respectively. This shows that the nutrition education was effective in improving their maternal nutritional knowledge
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