TY - JOUR
T1 - Module intervention to improve involvement and practices of fathers towards infant and young child feeding (IYCF) in Coastal South India - a randomized controlled trial
AU - Mithra, Prasanna
AU - Unnikrishnan, Bhaskaran
AU - T, Rekha
AU - Kumar, Nithin
AU - Holla, Ramesh
AU - Rathi, Priya
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors express sincere gratitude to Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal and, the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar, India for all the support extended towards this study. Also, authors acknowledge the help and support rendered by the research assistants, Mr Ranjith and Mr Santhosha A in the implementation of the module and field work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Mithra P et al.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Background: Overall child health depends on nutrition and its related practices. At the family level, responsibility of child feeding lies with both parents. There is no uniform and systematic way to determine and assess the practices of fathers in infant and young child feeding (IYCF). Also, there is a paucity of evidence related to interventions for fathers in improving their practices and involvement in the feeding of their infant or young child (aged less than two years). Methods: This was a community-based randomized control trial, conducted among 120 fathers with infants and/or young children in Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka. Fathers with poor level of involvement and practices towards IYCF, during the initial assessment, were included as the study participants. For the intervention, a module in the flipchart format was developed. Simple randomization technique was used to allot the participants into two groups - intervention and control. Participants in the intervention group received module intervention, in addition to the care which they received routinely, and the control group received only routine care. The participants in the intervention group were paid a monthly visit to implement the module, for six months. The post-intervention assessment was done at the end of 6 months. Results: A total of 117 participants provided post-intervention data. The mean age was 34.7 (+/- 5.48) years in the intervention group and 34.36 years (+/- 5.26) in the control group. The intervention group showed significantly higher improvement in knowledge, attitude, and practice components at 6 months (p<0.05), in both unadjusted and adjusted models. Conclusions: The extent of increase in practice and involvement in child feeding was clearly higher among the intervention group. The module developed was successful in improving the practices of fathers in feeding their infants and young children.
AB - Background: Overall child health depends on nutrition and its related practices. At the family level, responsibility of child feeding lies with both parents. There is no uniform and systematic way to determine and assess the practices of fathers in infant and young child feeding (IYCF). Also, there is a paucity of evidence related to interventions for fathers in improving their practices and involvement in the feeding of their infant or young child (aged less than two years). Methods: This was a community-based randomized control trial, conducted among 120 fathers with infants and/or young children in Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka. Fathers with poor level of involvement and practices towards IYCF, during the initial assessment, were included as the study participants. For the intervention, a module in the flipchart format was developed. Simple randomization technique was used to allot the participants into two groups - intervention and control. Participants in the intervention group received module intervention, in addition to the care which they received routinely, and the control group received only routine care. The participants in the intervention group were paid a monthly visit to implement the module, for six months. The post-intervention assessment was done at the end of 6 months. Results: A total of 117 participants provided post-intervention data. The mean age was 34.7 (+/- 5.48) years in the intervention group and 34.36 years (+/- 5.26) in the control group. The intervention group showed significantly higher improvement in knowledge, attitude, and practice components at 6 months (p<0.05), in both unadjusted and adjusted models. Conclusions: The extent of increase in practice and involvement in child feeding was clearly higher among the intervention group. The module developed was successful in improving the practices of fathers in feeding their infants and young children.
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U2 - 10.12688/f1000research.110851.2
DO - 10.12688/f1000research.110851.2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85134851784
SN - 2046-1402
VL - 11
JO - F1000Research
JF - F1000Research
M1 - 486
ER -