Knowledge and practice of under-five care takers on the prevention of malnutrition at the uth.

Abstract

This study was conducted at the University Teaching Hospital ( UTH) in the malnutrition ward AO 7. The objective of the study was to determine the knowledge and practices of caretakers of under five children admitted with malnutrition at the UTH. Data was collected from the caretakers in the ward in November 2010 using a non experimental, descriptive cross sectional study. A simple random sampling method was used to select a sample of 50 caretakers of underfive children admitted in ward AO 7. The data was analyzed and processed manually using a data master sheet and a scientific calculator. The results showed that on the prevention of malnutrition in the under five, 27(54%) of the respondents stated seeking early treatment is the best way of preventing malnutrition while eight (16%) mentioned that adding chlorine to drinking water is the best way of treating malnutrition. Regarding the respondents level of knowledge 23 (46%) of the respondents had a high level of knowledge while 5 (10%) had a low level of knowledge.