KNOWLEDGE AND INVOLVEMENT OF MARRIED MEN IN COMPLEMENTARY FEEDING IN IBADAN SOUTH – WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OYO STATE

Abstract

The quality of complementary foods has been established to be one of the most cost-effective strategies for improving health and reducing morbidity and mortality among children. Unbalanced nutrition in early life have long-lasting and irreversible consequences, including growth failure, poor resistance to infections and impaired learning capabilities. Over the years however, mothers have been the primary caregivers of the infant and young child hence many behaviour change approaches have focused on improving their knowledge gaps with little attention being paid to influence of fathers despite the fact that they are major decision makers of homes and are major influencers of mother’s adoption of optimal infant feeding. Hence, the study investigated knowledge and level of involvement in complementary feeding among married men in Ibadan South West Local Government Area of Oyo State. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was employed using a multi-stage sampling technique to select a sample size of 290 married men in Ibadan South West Local Governmenmt Area. A validated semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Knowledge was measured using a 29-point scale, scores ≤15 were rated as poor while scores >15 were categorised as good. Involvement was measured using a 20-point scale. Scores ≤10 were rated poor, scores >10 were categorised as good involvement. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were then used to analyse data at 95% level of significance. The mean age of the respondents was 39.0±8.4 years and majority (85.9%) of them were Yoruba. Majority (61.7%) were also Christians. The mean number of respondents’ children was 3.0±1.8 and most respondents (77.2%) had between one to three children. Only 0.4% of the respondents were able to give a correct definition of complementary feeding while a majority of the respondents (91.0%) gave varying wrong answers. As much as 67.8% of respondents had poor knowledge of complementary feeding while 32.1% had good knowledge. The mean score for involvement was 12.2 ± 2.4. Sharing of information on complementary feeding by parents of the young children was however low as 27.2% of the respondents stated that they did not share such information. There were multiple preferrable sources of information by the respondents on complementary feeding. However, their most preferred sources were hospitals (17.9%), internet (15.9%) and radio (14.8%). There was no significant relationship between level of education/age of respondents and knowledge of complementary feeding. There was also no significant relationship between knowledge and level of involvement of respondents in complementary feeding. Overall, most of the respondents had good involvement in complementary feeding. However, their knowledge was very poor hence it is recommended that more integrative and participative approaches on the social media and other related platforms that would target the males should be utilised to increase male knowledge which would further enhance positive involvement and adoption of appropriate complementary feeding behaviours.