What Do Mothers Know About Nutrition? Impacts on Childhood Nutrition Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Abstract

Introduction: Globally, the prevalence of undernutrition is highest in the sub-Saharan African region with over a third of the world's stunted children residing in this region. Many studies have explored child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, but they often overlook the intricate nuances of maternal knowledge. We examined the association between maternal nutritional knowledge and childhood nutritional outcomes.

Methods: This was a secondary analysis utilizing data from the Demographic and Health Survey of eight sub-Saharan African countries that were conducted between 2019 and 2022, focusing on children aged 6 to 23 months. The study used latent class analysis to identify discrete patterns of nutrition and health-related knowledge and mixed-effects logistic regression to assess their association with childhood nutritional outcomes namely, stunting and wasting. Statistical significance was determined at p < 0.05.

Results: Most participants knew the importance of colostrum (76.8%) and continued breastfeeding (76.7%), as well as immunization (60.0%) and diarrhoea prevention and treatment strategies (65.1%). However, only 24.49% knew about family planning. Children of high knowledge group/class had a 17% lower risk of childhood stunting (crude model; COR = 0.83; 95%CI: 0.77, 0.90, adjusted model; AOR = 0.89; 95%CI: 0.82, 0.97) and a 22% lower risk of wasting (COR = 0.78; 95%CI: 0.69, 0.89, adjusted model; AOR = 0.84; 95%CI: 0.73, 0.96) compared to those from the low knowledge group/class.

Conclusion: These results highlight the pivotal role of maternal knowledge in shaping children's health outcomes and emphasize the urgent need for targeted interventions and comprehensive maternal education programs to address the identified knowledge gaps and improve child health outcomes.