Knowledge, attitude, practices regarding infant and young child feeding among mothers engaged in artisanal mining in Moroto District, North Eastern Uganda

Abstract

Acute malnutrition is linked to more than a third of all child deaths globally with the most vulnerable children to acute malnutrition being those born to mothers in the artisanal mining industry. Acute malnutrition can be prevented through adoption of appropriate infant and young child feeding practices by mothers and caregivers however, this requires that those mothers or caregivers are knowledgeable about IYCF and largely have positive attitudes towards it‟s practice. To assess the knowledge attitude and practices of infant and young child feeding of mothers engaged in artisanal mining in Moroto district - Karamoja region. This was a mixed cross sectional study that targeted 318 mothers engaged in artisanal mining, and having children aged between 12 and 24 months. Nakabat, Nanyidik and Kosiroi mining villages in Rupa, Katikekile and Tapac sub counties in Moroto district were sampled purposively. Qualitative data were collected through 6 Focus group discussions with mothers of children between 12-24 months and analyzed using Atlas.ti. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS version 25, Chi-square statistics, ANOVA, principal component and cluster analysis. A quarter of the mothers 25% (78/318) was knowledgeable about IYCF. The proportion of mothers engaged in artisanal mining in Moroto district, who have positive attitudes towards infant and young child feeding was 13% (42/318). More than half of the mothers 59% had adequate IYCF practices. Infant and Young Child Feeding knowledge, attitudes towards IYCF, and practices did not significantly differ by any of the demographic characteristics (p>0.05). Knowledge about and attitudes towards IYCF among mothers engaged in Artisanal mining in Moroto district are sub optimal; only about 3 in 10 and 1 in every 10 mothers are knowledgeable and have positive IYCF attitudes, respectively. However, their IYCF practices are only fair, implying that there is need to intensify nutrition education and behavior change communication to support the mothers of infant and young children engaged in artisanal mining in Moroto district.