Knowledge, attitudes and practices of health workers on nutritional assessment of under- five-year-old children at selected lower-level health facilities in Nakawa Division Kampala

Abstract

Background: Assessment of nutritional status in under five children is necessary for predicting growth patterns and signs associated with malnutrition. This ensures their timely nutritional care and treatment. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice of health workers on Nutritional Assessment of under–five Children at selected Health Facilities in Nakawa division, Kampala. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, a total of 413 health care workers (HCWs) participated. These were selected from 85 both private and public health facilities. Data was collected using a pre-tested questionnaire for HCWs and an observation checklist for health facilities. And analysis was done using STATA. Univariate, bivariate and linear regression analyses were carried out to determine whether Knowledge and attitude scores predicted practices among the health workers towards nutritional assessment. Results: Results from this study showed that 90.8% of health workers had a good knowledge level about assessment of children under 5 years for nutrition level and level of education was a statistically significant (p=0.001) predictor of knowledge level. There existed a significant low positive correlation between health workers knowledge and their practices (r=0.337, p<0.005. Similarly, 70.2% of the health care workers had a positive attitude with age (p=0.002), education level (p=0.011), Type of Health Facility (p=0.01), working experience (p<0.05), and Level of Health Facility (p=0.004) as positive predictors of attitude. There existed a significant moderate positive correlation between health workers attitude and their practices (r=0.466, p<0.005). However, 54.7% of the health care workers had poor practice level but the health facilities were well equipped with the essential supplies and equipment necessary for nutritional status assessment among the children. Conclusion: Overall, despite their poor practice, health workers had good knowledge and positive attitude towards nutritional assessment. To improve the performance of nutritional assessment, there is need to periodically sensitize health workers to emphasize on importance of adequate and complete nutritional assessment.