Impact assessment of nutritional education and motivation of mothers in food supplementation of malnourished 2-5 years old in an urban slum of Ludhiana: A field trial

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition in all its forms remains a major public health problem throughout the developing world and is an underlying factor in child mortality. India is home to 40 percent of the world’s malnourished children. 2 million children die in India, accounting for one in five child deaths in the world. More than half of these deaths could be prevented if children were well nourished.  Objectives: To assess the impact of maternal education and motivation in the nutritional supplementation of malnourished 2-5 years olds in an urban slum area of Ludhiana. Methodology: A community-based interventional study was carried out in 101 eligible children in an urban slum of Ludhiana. The mothers were given nutritional and health education and were also taught how to prepare different types of low cost energy-dense supplementary foodstuffs for the children. The results were seen in terms of continuation of the practice after educating and motivating the mothers of malnourished under-fives to provide the supplementary nutrition. The data was analyzed using Epi-Info version-6 software and SPSS version 16. Result: Post intervention showed that number of days in a month the mother gave nutritional supplement declined from mean 17.5 days to 10.5 days from first to sixth month follow up. Conclusion: Nutritional status of the children improves with continued nutrition and health education of the mothers.