Level of Knowledge and Teaching of Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices among Health Workers in Delta State, South-South Nigeria

Objective: The aim of this study was to find out how well Delta State health workers are acquainted with infant and young child feeding practices.

Methods: This study involved randomly selecting 235 primary health care centers from 445 functioning primary health care centers in Delta State and enlisting the most skilled health workers (198 nurses and 37 community health extension workers, 1 from each facility) to carry out the study. The survey instrument consisted of a structured and validated questionnaire. Data were obtained on information about early initiation, exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding, and many more. Statistical analysis was performed using International Business Machines Corporation Statistics for Social Sciences version 22.0. (IBM SPSS Corp.; Armonk, NY, USA), which utilized descriptive statistics and 1-sample tests.

Results: There was variation in the respondent’s knowledge of breastfeeding immediately after delivery. Poor attachment knowledge was observed among the health workers, accounting for 39.1% in total. Also, 48.1% of the health workers had no idea when a retroviral disease-positive mother needs to stop breastfeeding.

Conclusion: The study showed that the respondent’s knowledge level and teaching of infant and young child feeding practices were average. The nutritional status of infants and young children can be enhanced through training and supportive supervision of their knowledge and counseling skills pertaining to infant and young child feeding practices.

Cite this article as: Odo CC, Omojola AD, Etchie BL. Level of knowledge and teaching of infant and young child feeding practices among health workers in Delta State, South-South Nigeria. Clin Sci Nutr. 2022;4(2):33-39.