Abstract
This paper evaluates the knowledge of community health workers in complementary feeding and their association with sociodemographic characteristics, work routines and describes the resources available in primary care facilities to master this topic. We applied questionnaires to the responsible for health services and to community health workers, the latter consisting of a knowledge test that allowed the calculation of scores according to the number of correct answers in multiple-choice questions. There was a positive association with age, length of service, home visits to children under 24 months, providing guidance or seeking information about complementary feeding with the knowledge in feeding in the first 24 months of life. There were discrepant responses by health services and the community health workers regarding training, government materials and child growth monitoring. Greater mastery was noted in breastfeeding in relation to complementary feeding. Therefore, primary care facilities should provide support and resources to increase knowledge in complementary feeding through training and access to government materials.
Highlights
Food is a fundamental human right as it is the basis for survival[1] and is an essential factor in providing full growth, health and development during childhood[2]
Eligible community health workers (CHWs) should be in full exercise of their professional activities in the urban area; those who were in any type of leave and who worked in the rural area of the municipality were excluded
As for the MoH materials, we checked with CHWs only whether they were aware of any of them, while for the UBS responsible, we considered the availability of each of the five publications that contained the theme CF28-32
Summary
Food is a fundamental human right as it is the basis for survival[1] and is an essential factor in providing full growth, health and development during childhood[2]. According to recommendations, breastfeeding should be exclusive in the first semester and food should be introduced after six months, complementing breast milk[6]. It is estimated that breastfeeding and healthy complementary feeding promotion actions can reduce the occurrence of deaths in children under five years of age to 13% and 6%, respectively, in the world[7]. A similar progress has not been made in relation to complementary feeding worldwide[6]. Research reports that the introduction of food in Brazil occurs early and is of low quality[8-11]. Food with high bioavailability of iron, which is extremely necessary in complementary food, are introduced late[11-13]. The introduction of food occurs incorrectly and is harmful to children’s health. 7. Period for introducing family food 134 (54.5) 75 (30.5) 37 (15.0).
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