Volume 5, Issue 8, August – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of VATM on

Knowledge Regarding Malnutrition among
Mothers of Under-Five Children Residing at
Navanagar of Bagalkot
Monappa Prof. Sureshgouda S Patil. M.Sc (N), MBA (HM)
M.Sc Nursing 2nd Year Head of Dept.
Dept of Paediatric Nursing Dept of Paediatric Nursing
BVVS Sajjalashree Inst of Nursing Sciences Navanagar BVVS Sajjalashree Inst of Nursing Sciences Navanagar
Bagalkot Karnataka587-103 Bagalkot Karnataka-587 103

Dr. Deelip. S. Natekar. M.Sc (N), Ph.D. (N)

Principal
BVVS Sajjalashree Inst of Nursing Sciences Navanagar Bagalkot Karnataka-587 103.

Abstract had good knowledge and no mothers of under-five

children with average, poor and very poor knowledge.
 Aims:
The aims of this study are as follows: (1) To assess  Conclusion:
the knowledge regarding malnutrition among mothers After thorough analysis of the data, researcher
of under-five children. (2) To assess the effectiveness of concluded that only 46% mothers of under-five children
VATM on knowledge regarding malnutrition among are with good knowledge related to malnutrition. A
the mothers of under-five children and (3) To find out mother with good knowledge can have healthy children.
the association between the knowledge with their Hence more study can be conducted by using different
selected socio-demographical variables. method of teaching to achieve optimal knowledge
related to malnutrition.
 Materials and Methods:
Study approach- This was a quasi-experimental Keywords:- Mothers of under-five children, Knowledge,
survey and follow the study design as pre-experimental VATM, Effectiveness and socio-demographic variables.
one group pre-test, post-test without control group. The
population involved in this study was mothers of under- I. INTRODUCTION
five children in Bagalkot. Samples are mothers of
under-five children residing in Navanagar. Sample size Malnutrition is a manmade disease which often begins
is 100 (Total) mothers of under-five children were in the womb and ends in the tomb. It is a global problem
included in the study. Further, data were collected by especially in developing countries.1 Malnutrition is one of
structured closed ended knowledge questionnaire. the main causes of the death of children under the age of 5
years and is one of the most common causes of the decline
 Results: in the health and life of children, which results in decreased
After collection, the data are organized and learn ability, inefficiency and inability to acquire skills. 2
analyzed with the help of mean median and percentage,
and the socio-demographic characteristics of mothers of Malnutrition can be defined as a group of clinical
under-five children were as follows: 46% of mothers of conditions that results from varying degree of protein
under-five children are in the age group of 20-25 years, deficiency and energy (calorie) inadequacy. 3
35% of mothers belongs to primary education, 59% of
mothers are house wife, 38% of mothers are having Stunting, wasting and underweight are among those
15,001-20,000rs, 93% of mothers are Muslims, 71% of anthropometric indicators are commonly use to measure
mothers are from nuclear family, and 39% of mothers malnutrition in a population of under-five children.4
are having 2 children. Percentage wise distribution of  Stunting refers to a child who is too short for his or her
mothers according to their knowledge shows that 46% age.
of mothers had good knowledge followed by 36%  Wasting refers to a child who is too thin for his or her
mothers had average knowledge, 16% had poor height.
knowledge and only 2% mothers had very poor  Underweight refers to child who has less weight than
knowledge. After VATM (post test) 86% mothers are normal.5
having very good knowledge followed by 14% mothers

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Volume 5, Issue 8, August – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
The 2019 GHI (Global Hunger Index) measured  Aims
hunger in 117 countries where the assessment is most The aims of this study are as follows:
relevant and where data on all four component indicators  To assess the knowledge regarding malnutrition among
are available. These indicators are proportion of mothers of under-five children.
underweight, and undernourished, mortality rate, stunted  To assess the effectiveness of VATM on knowledge
children under five years of age. On account of its huge regarding malnutrition among the mothers of under-five
populace, India's GHI pointer esteems oversizedly affect children.
the marker esteems for the area. India's kid wasting rate is  To find out the association between the knowledge with
very high at 20.8%-the most elevated squandering pace of their selected socio-demographical variables.
any nation in this report for which information or
evaluations were accessible, the report said. Stunting rate, II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
37.9% is also categorized as very high in terms of its public
health signature. In India, 9.6% of all children between 6 The present study was conducted on a quasi-
& 23 months of age are fed a minimum acceptable diet. 6 experimental approach and pre-experimental one group pre-
According to a UNICEF report 2019; Malnutrition caused test, post-test without control group design. The target
69% of passings of kids beneath the age of five in India. population is mothers of under-five children in Bagalkot
This incorporates stunting [35%], wasting [17%] & district. Accessible population is mothers of under-five
overweight [2%].7 Acc. to the Global nutrition Report 2018, children in Navanagar was selected by a lottery method of
India is confronting a significant ailing health emergency as simple random sampling technique and 100 mothers of
it holds very nearly 3% of world’s weight for stunting. under-five children were selected. The data were collected
With 46.6 million [31%] children who are stunted, India by structured closed ended knowledge questionnaire. Data
additionally built for 25.5 million youngsters who are analysis and interpretation were performed using
wasted, trailed by Nigeria [3.4 million] and Indonesia [3.3 descriptive such as frequency distribution, mean, median,
million].8 percentage, and inferential statistics such as Chi-square,
Fisher’s exact test.
PEM has been marked as one of the major nutritional
problem among children in India. Since the mothers were III. RESULTS
the primary care takers of children, if they possess adequate
knowledge on food and nutrition of children, they can be  Part A: Description of demographic characteristics of
prevented from protein energy malnutrition.9 the mothers of under-five children.
Percentage-wise distribution of mothers of under-five
In north Karnataka where people especially in rural children according to their age evident that majority 46% of
areas have still not come out of the ritual superstitious mothers were in the age group of 20-25 years, 21% were in
practices, the malnutrition has rooted badly deep. In the age group of 26-30 years, 17% were in the age group of
Bagalkot district stunted, wasted and under weight is 31-35years and 16% were 36 years and above.
36.2%, 26.1% and 35.2% respectively.10
Percentage-wise distribution of mothers of under-five
A pre-experimental study conducted to assess the children according to their education depicts that the
effectiveness of Video Assisted Teaching Module majority 35% of mothers had primary education, 30% had
regarding malnutrition among mothers of under-five no formal education, 15% were with secondary education,
children residing at selected slum areas of Bhopal [2019]. 12% were with PUC, and 08% were with degree & above.
30 subjects were selected by purposive sampling technique.
Quantitative approach with one group pretest, posttest Percentage-wise distribution of mothers of under-five
research design was utilized.. Result shown that before children according to their occupation depicts that the
administration of the structured teaching programme majority 59% of mothers were house wife, 14% were
18(40%) mothers had poor knowledge 15(33.3%) with agriculturist, 11% were doing labor, 06% were with
average knowledge and 12 (26.7%) had good knowledge. business, and 07% were with govt. and 03% with private
After VATM education 12[26.7] had poor knowledge, employee.
21[46.7%] had average knowledge & 12[26.7%] had good
knowledge. The findings of the present study were Percentage-wise distribution of mothers of under-five
analyzed and discussed with the findings of other similar children according to their family monthly income (In
studies confirmed That (VATM) regarding malnutrition rupees) depicts that the majority 38% of mothers were with
was effective. It's increasing the knowledge of mothers of income of 15,001-20,000rs, 28% were with 10,001-
under 5 year children.11 15,000rs, 16% were with 5,000-10,000rs, 15% were with
20,001-25,000rs, and 03% were with 25,001rs & above.
Hence with the aim to assess the effectiveness of
VATM on knowledge regarding malnutrition among Percentage-wise distribution of mothers of under-five
mothers of under-five children residing at Navanagar of children according to their religion depicts that the majority
Bagalkot was planned. 93% of mothers were Hindu, 06% were Muslim and 01%
were Christian.

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Volume 5, Issue 8, August – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Percentage-wise distribution of mothers of under-five  Part C: Assessment of the effectiveness of the VATM on
children according to their type of family depicts that the knowledge regarding malnutrition among mothers of
majority 71% of mothers were from nuclear family, 28% under-five children.
were from joint family and 01% were from extended After VATM (post test) 86% mothers were having
family. very good knowledge, whereas 14% mothers had good
knowledge and there are no mothers of under-five children
Percentage-wise distribution of mothers of under-five with average, poor and very poor knowledge regarding
children according to their no. of children depicts that the malnutrition. [Table 2]
majority 37% of mothers were having 2 children, 33% were
having 3 children, 24% were having 1 child and 06% of  Part D: Association between the knowledge with their
mothers were having 4 & above children. selected socio-demographic variables.
Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test is used to find
 Part B: Assessment of knowledge regarding the association between the knowledge with their selected
malnutrition among mothers of under-five children. socio-demographic variables. The test results reveals that
Percentage distribution of mothers according to their the calculated chi-square value for the socio-demographic
knowledge level reveals that 46% mothers were having variables like age, education, occupation, family monthly
good knowledge, whereas 36% had average knowledge, income, religion, type of family and no. of children in the
16% had poor knowledge and only 2% mothers had very family are 0.691, 0.251, 0.005, 0.008, 1, 0.0002 and 0.827.
poor knowledge. [Table 1] The chi-square table value is 3.84. Hence the Chi square
calculated values are lesser than Chi square table values.
This indicates there was no significant association found
between the above said selected socio-demographic
variables with their knowledge on malnutrition. P<0.05.
[Table 3]

Pre-test
Sl. No Range of score Knowledge of mothers
Frequency %
1. 0-5 Very poor 02 02
2. 6-12 Poor 16 16
3. 13-18 Average 36 36
4. 19-25 Good 46 46
5. 26-32 Very good 00 00
TOTAL 100 100
Table 1:- Frequency and percentage distribution of mothers of under-five children according to their knowledge on malnutrition.
(N=100)

Knowledge of Pre-test Post-test

Sl. No Range of score
mothers
Frequency % Frequency %
1. 0-5 Very poor 02 02 00 00
2. 6-12 Poor 16 16 00 00
3. 13-18 Average 36 36 00 00
4. 19-25 Good 46 46 14 14
5. 26-32 Very good 00 00 86 86
TOTAL 100 100 100 100
Table 2:- Percentage wise distribution of study subjects according to levels of knowledge in pre-test and post-test. (N=100)

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Volume 5, Issue 8, August – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165

SL. NO. Socio-demographic variables χ2 calculated value χ2 table value Association

df
1 Age 1 0.691 3.84 No significant Association
2 Education 1 0.251 3.84 No significant Association
3 Occupation 1 0.005 3.84 No significant Association
4 Family monthly income 1 0.008 3.84 No significant Association
5 Religion 1 1 3.84 No significant Association
6 Type of family 1 0.0002 3.84 No significant Association

7 No. of children in the family 1 0.827 3.84 No significant Association

Table 3:- Association between the knowledge with their selected socio-demographic variables. (N=100)

IV. DISCUSSION and 20% of them had good level of knowledge score. The
mean score of pre-test was 8.04±1.92 whereas in post-test
After reviewing many studies related to mothers of 13 (26%) of mothers of under-five children were having
under-five children knowledge regarding malnutrition and good level of knowledge score, 64% had very good and
A broad it has immensely influenced me to take up the 10% had excellent level of knowledge score. The mean
present study, The studies influenced me to conduct this score for the post-test was 16.18±2.31. Significant
present study as follows. association not found between knowledge score and
selected socio demographic variables. The study
A pre-experimental research study conducted to assess recommended that same study can be done on a using
the knowledge on protein energy malnutrition among structured closed ended questionnaire.13
mothers of under-five children, to determine the
effectiveness information booklet on protein energy V. CONCLUSION
malnutrition among mothers of under-five children in
selected rural communities, Nellore (2016). An evaluative After thorough analysis of the data, it is understood
study by using pre-experimental one group pretest and that only 46% mothers of under-five children are with good
post-test design was used, a sample size of 100 mothers knowledge related to malnutrition. A mother with good
were selected by using simple random sampling technique, knowledge can have healthy children. Hence more study
Semi structured questionnaire were used to collect the data can be conducted by using different method of teaching to
and information booklet was provided and post-test level of achieve optimal knowledge related to malnutrition.
knowledge was assessed. Data was computed by using
descriptive & inferential statistics. Results shows that out of RECOMMENDATIONS
100 mothers in pre-test 68 (68%) mothers had inadequate
knowledge regarding protein energy malnutrition 32(32%)  A similar study can be repeated in different regions of
with moderately adequate knowledge where as in post test the states or nations so as to compare the results.
59 [59%] subjects acquired adequate knowledge & 36  The same study can be replicated on a large sample to
[36%] subjects acquired moderately adequate knowledge. generalize the findings.
Mean post-test score (38.5) was higher than the mean pre-  The study can be conducted by including additional
test score score (13.64). Paired ‘t’ value was 40.125 at demographic variables.
p˂0.05. There was statistically significant association  A similar study can be recommended by using different
between pre-test level of knowledge and demographic method of teaching.
variables of mothers such as age, educational status, no. of
children, monthly income and type of family. The study REFERENCES
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