Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Breastfeeding among Mothers with Children Below Two Years Old in Terengganu

Abstract

Breast milk is an ideal food for infants because it contains essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antibodies which are vital for the infants’ optimal growth, development and health. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of stunting and to assess knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of breastfeeding among mothers with children below two years old in Kuala Nerus and Kuala Terengganu, and to further assess the association between KAP and stunting. Anthropometric measurement of the children consists of weight and length/height, where the cut-off for Length-for-age Z-scores (LAZ) is considered as stunted if the score is below -2SD while it is considered as severe stunted if the score is below -3SD. Questionnaires containing two parts: sociodemographic characteristics and validated Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of breastfeeding questionnaires. A total of 228 respondents with the mean age of 31.5±4.7 years for the mothers and 1.41±0.8 months for children were recruited in this study. More than half (51.8%) of the respondents received tertiary education. Most of the respondents’ household categories were in B40 income group (85.1%), followed by M40 (14.5%) and T20 (0.4%). For children, 50.9% were boys while another 49.1% were girls. The prevalence of stunting among children below two years old in Terengganu was 25.5%. Next, the majority of the respondents had moderate knowledge (55.7%), neutral attitude (60.1%) and fair practice (45.2%) of breastfeeding. However, there was no significant association between KAP of breastfeeding and stunting status (p>0.05). Therefore, it is important to design strategies for promoting breastfeeding among mothers so that it can improve their knowledge and attitude towards breastfeeding and its practices. Besides, urgent action is needed to reduce the number of stunted children below two years old in Terengganu.