Background: Effective practice of recommended infant feeding methods is key to child survival strategy in sub-Saharan Africa. Attitude towards infant feeding has been shown to be a significant determinant of practice. For health workers, attitude may determine the propensity to counsel mothers towards adoption and adherence to recommended infant feeding practices. This study aimed at assessing health workers’ attitude towards infant feeding. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out in April 2019. Leslie Kish formula was used to recruit 225 health workers in Calabar to participate in the study. Ethical approval was obtained from the Cross River State Research and Health Ethics Committee. A validated self-administered IOWA infant feeding attitude scale was utilized in this study. Using the scale, attitude was categorized as positive for breastfeeding, neutral, and positive for formula feeding. Data was analysed using SPSS version 21.0, and p-value was set at 0.05. Result: Two hundred and twenty-five respondents completed the questionnaire. Female: male ratio was 1:0.24, the commonest age group (43.1%) was 31 to 40 years old, and 60% of respondents were nurses. Most respondents (52.9%) had neutral attitude, while 44.0% had positive attitude for breastfeeding, and 3.1% had positive attitude towards formula feeding. Age group, religion, profession, and ethnicity did not significantly influence attitude towards breastfeeding (p>0.05). Conclusion: Neutral attitude towards breastfeeding was common among health workers. This has implications for successful implementation of the recommended breastfeeding initiative towards improvement in child survival especially in resource-poor settings. Regular re-training of health workers is needed, especially through continuing educational effort by the various health professional bodies.
| Published in | American Journal of Pediatrics (Volume 6, Issue 3) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ajp.20200603.43 |
| Page(s) | 368-372 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Infant Feeding, Child Survival, Health Workers Attitude, Nigeria
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APA Style
Ikobah Joanah Moses, Omoronyia Ogban, Ikpeme Offiong, Ekpeyong Nnete, Utsu Caleb. (2020). Attitude Towards Infant Feeding Among Health Workers in Calabar, Nigeria. American Journal of Pediatrics, 6(3), 368-372. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajp.20200603.43
ACS Style
Ikobah Joanah Moses; Omoronyia Ogban; Ikpeme Offiong; Ekpeyong Nnete; Utsu Caleb. Attitude Towards Infant Feeding Among Health Workers in Calabar, Nigeria. Am. J. Pediatr. 2020, 6(3), 368-372. doi: 10.11648/j.ajp.20200603.43
AMA Style
Ikobah Joanah Moses, Omoronyia Ogban, Ikpeme Offiong, Ekpeyong Nnete, Utsu Caleb. Attitude Towards Infant Feeding Among Health Workers in Calabar, Nigeria. Am J Pediatr. 2020;6(3):368-372. doi: 10.11648/j.ajp.20200603.43
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ajp.20200603.43,
author = {Ikobah Joanah Moses and Omoronyia Ogban and Ikpeme Offiong and Ekpeyong Nnete and Utsu Caleb},
title = {Attitude Towards Infant Feeding Among Health Workers in Calabar, Nigeria},
journal = {American Journal of Pediatrics},
volume = {6},
number = {3},
pages = {368-372},
doi = {10.11648/j.ajp.20200603.43},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajp.20200603.43},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajp.20200603.43},
abstract = {Background: Effective practice of recommended infant feeding methods is key to child survival strategy in sub-Saharan Africa. Attitude towards infant feeding has been shown to be a significant determinant of practice. For health workers, attitude may determine the propensity to counsel mothers towards adoption and adherence to recommended infant feeding practices. This study aimed at assessing health workers’ attitude towards infant feeding. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out in April 2019. Leslie Kish formula was used to recruit 225 health workers in Calabar to participate in the study. Ethical approval was obtained from the Cross River State Research and Health Ethics Committee. A validated self-administered IOWA infant feeding attitude scale was utilized in this study. Using the scale, attitude was categorized as positive for breastfeeding, neutral, and positive for formula feeding. Data was analysed using SPSS version 21.0, and p-value was set at 0.05. Result: Two hundred and twenty-five respondents completed the questionnaire. Female: male ratio was 1:0.24, the commonest age group (43.1%) was 31 to 40 years old, and 60% of respondents were nurses. Most respondents (52.9%) had neutral attitude, while 44.0% had positive attitude for breastfeeding, and 3.1% had positive attitude towards formula feeding. Age group, religion, profession, and ethnicity did not significantly influence attitude towards breastfeeding (p>0.05). Conclusion: Neutral attitude towards breastfeeding was common among health workers. This has implications for successful implementation of the recommended breastfeeding initiative towards improvement in child survival especially in resource-poor settings. Regular re-training of health workers is needed, especially through continuing educational effort by the various health professional bodies.},
year = {2020}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Attitude Towards Infant Feeding Among Health Workers in Calabar, Nigeria AU - Ikobah Joanah Moses AU - Omoronyia Ogban AU - Ikpeme Offiong AU - Ekpeyong Nnete AU - Utsu Caleb Y1 - 2020/09/07 PY - 2020 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajp.20200603.43 DO - 10.11648/j.ajp.20200603.43 T2 - American Journal of Pediatrics JF - American Journal of Pediatrics JO - American Journal of Pediatrics SP - 368 EP - 372 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2472-0909 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajp.20200603.43 AB - Background: Effective practice of recommended infant feeding methods is key to child survival strategy in sub-Saharan Africa. Attitude towards infant feeding has been shown to be a significant determinant of practice. For health workers, attitude may determine the propensity to counsel mothers towards adoption and adherence to recommended infant feeding practices. This study aimed at assessing health workers’ attitude towards infant feeding. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out in April 2019. Leslie Kish formula was used to recruit 225 health workers in Calabar to participate in the study. Ethical approval was obtained from the Cross River State Research and Health Ethics Committee. A validated self-administered IOWA infant feeding attitude scale was utilized in this study. Using the scale, attitude was categorized as positive for breastfeeding, neutral, and positive for formula feeding. Data was analysed using SPSS version 21.0, and p-value was set at 0.05. Result: Two hundred and twenty-five respondents completed the questionnaire. Female: male ratio was 1:0.24, the commonest age group (43.1%) was 31 to 40 years old, and 60% of respondents were nurses. Most respondents (52.9%) had neutral attitude, while 44.0% had positive attitude for breastfeeding, and 3.1% had positive attitude towards formula feeding. Age group, religion, profession, and ethnicity did not significantly influence attitude towards breastfeeding (p>0.05). Conclusion: Neutral attitude towards breastfeeding was common among health workers. This has implications for successful implementation of the recommended breastfeeding initiative towards improvement in child survival especially in resource-poor settings. Regular re-training of health workers is needed, especially through continuing educational effort by the various health professional bodies. VL - 6 IS - 3 ER -
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