Maternal knowledge, attitude and practices on the dietary omega 3 and 6 in children aged 1-2 years old in Labuhanbatu Utara regency, Indonesia

Abstract

Background: Indonesia is one of the countries with low quality human resources including the issue on cognitive performances from brain functioning creativity. In the effort to fulfil Omega 3 and 6 in children aged 1-2 years, the most responsible person to the period are mothers. Therefore, the study aimed to determine the level of maternal knowledge, attitude, and practices and factors associated with the dietary omega 3 and 6 consumption in children aged 1-2 years old in Labuhanbatu Utara, Indonesia. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 428 mothers of children aged 1-2 years using a face-to-face interview with a structured questionnaire. A multi-stage sampling was drawn from villages in eight subdistricts of Labura. Frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were presented for descriptive analysis. Chi-square and Binary logistic regression were used to describe the relationship between the selected independent variables and level of good maternal practices with statistically significant at p-value <0.05.Results: Almost half of participants has good level of knowledge (41.8%). Whereas only 7.2% and 2.3% of all participants have good level of attitude and practice on dietary omega 3 and 6, respectively. Eight variables (Pentecostal-religion, living in urban area, malay-ethnic, sex of subjected children, current breastfeeding, and sources of information, along with a fair level of attitude were significantly associated with the good level of maternal practices on consumption of omega 3 and 6 to the children aged 1-2 years.Conclusion: The study found that many factors were associated with good maternal practices on consumption of dietary omega 3 and 6 among 1-2 years old children in Labuhanbatu Utara, Indonesia. Therefore, further research and intervention focuses on those factors, especially on attitude of the mothers should be considered.