Student
Dissertation 2nd Batch 
The Impact of Health and Nutrition Education on Knowledge and Practice of Mothers with under three years Old Children
Tanzeba Ambereen Huq
Abstract
Malnutrition is the world’s most serious health problem and the single largest contributor to child mortality. In 1995, the World Health Organization identified malnutrition as the underlying cause of 56 percent of child deaths world wide. Although children with severe malnutrition are most vulnerable to death, children with mild or moderate malnutrition contribute to most of the malnutrition-related mortality because of the sheer numbers of such children in the developing world. Half of all childhood mortality, therefore, could be averted by eliminating malnutrition. It is, therefore, very important that malnutrition be addressed adequately so that the country is within reach of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 4. One of the most important strategies of achieving this is to change behavior of mothers of under-two children with respect to feeding, hygienic practices, and immunization. Provision of health and nutrition education in a curative setting is a unique attempt to change behavior, taking advantage of the WHO concept of ‘missed opportunities’.Health and nutrition education at the Dhaka hospital of ICDDR,B provides important and useful health information on issues and concerns that every family in our community should know especially about risk factors resulting in diarrhoeal diseases, including unfavorable sanitary practices such as fecal disposal in open places, improper waste disposal, absence of latrines, lack of proper hand washing and poor food handling, lack of access to protected water, early weaning onto contaminated foods, crowded housing, influence of poverty, and low levels of education. The messages are simple, and people can act on them. This study was an attempt to evaluate the efficacy of the health and nutrition education program.
