Knowledge And Attitude Of Health Workers Towards Infant And Young Child Feeding In Umuahia North Local Government Area Abia State:- Emmanuel, Kelecih S

ABSTRACT ix This study assessed knowledge and attitudes of health workers towards infant and young child feeding practices in Ikwuano, Local government Area of Abia State. Thus, to objectify the main objective ofthis work the following four specific objectives were used; the socioeconomic characteristics of the health personnels in the study area, the level of knowledge of health workers towards young child feeding practice using the WHO/UNICEF indicators, the attitudes of health workers towards young child feeding practices using the WIIO/UNICEF indicators and the association of socioeconomic characteristics, knowledge and attitudes of health workers towards infant young child feeding practices. The study was a cross-sectional descriptive study. However, in the quest to perfect this research; data were sourced primarily through questionnaire instrument distributed randomly to 307 of the health workers. Thus, three hundred and seven (307) responses were gathered and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result showed that; the mean age of the health workers was (37.50 ± 9.72), 79.2% were female, 53.7% had bachelor degree, 52.8% earned N61,000 and above and 44.6% were nurses. Majority 98.0% of the health workers had good knowledge and positive attitude towards infant feeding of children (0 6 months). Majority 74.6% had positive attitude towards infant feeding (0-6 months). However, there was no significant association of healthcare professionals between socioeconomic factors and knowledge of healthcare professionals towards infant and young child feeding. In conclusion, among the socioeconomic factors, there was a negative significant association between income status and attitude of healthcare professionals towards infant and young child feeding