Perception of Mothers on Adequate Nutrition
Abstract: Malnutrition in
children less than 5 years old persists around the world. In West Java and one
of the districts of West Java (Sumedang), the prevalence of malnutrition is
about 18.5% and 15.8% respectively.
Numerous factors can lead to child malnutrition. Difficulties in
availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of food can be
contributing factors. A good perception of mother on adequate nutrition can improve
children’s nutritional status. This study was conducted to study the perception
of mothers with children 2 to 5 years old on adequate nutrition.
Methods: Most of the respondents had good perception on the aspect of
adequate nutrition. Results showed
perception on availability was 83.8%, physical accessibility was 97.1%,
economical accessibility was 98.6%, information accessibility was 84.8% and
acceptability was 81.0%. However, perception of respondents on good quality
nutrition for the main meal and additional food was still poor. Moreover, there
are taboos for eating shrimp and watermelon. Additionally, children were given
snacks in large amount.
Results: There was a strong correlation between mid-upper arm muscle
area/size and muscular strength (correlation cooefficient 0.746). Moreover, the
higher the Body Mass Index, the stronger the muscle strength was to some point.
If the BMI was more than 25 kg/m2, this findings did not occurred.
Conclusions: This study reveals that the perception of mothers on good
quality food is poor regardless the good results on availibility, accesibility
and acceptability.
Keywords: Acceptability,
accessibility, availability, nutrition
Author: Darshini Valoo, Aly
Diana, Sharon Gondodiputro
Journal Code: jpkedokterangg170091
