IMPACT OF HEALTH-EDUCATION ON THE FEEDING OF GREEN LEAFY VEGETABLES AT HOME TO CHILDREN OF THE URBAN-POOR MOTHERS OF BANGLADESH

To evaluate the impact of health education on mothers, on the feeding of their children green leafy vegetables (GLV) at home, we studied 160 children aged 6 to 35 months and their mothers in two intervention gr oups and one comparison group. The mothers of the first intervention g roup (n = 44) were given health education including a feeding demonstr ation, by offering a single meal of cooked GLV to their children. The mothers in the second intervention group (n = 36) received health educ ation only. Mothers of both the intervention groups were visited at ho me after eight weeks of intervention without prior notice, and for eac h of them an immediate neighbourhood mother having a child in the same age range was selected as a comparison mother (n = 80). During this v isit, mothers were asked whether they had cooked GLV that day and fed these to their children; this was confirmed by spot-checking. Also, mo thers were interviewed to elicit their perceptions about GLV. The perc entages of mothers who thought that GLV are good for health were 88.7% , 86.1% and 76.2% in groups 1, 2 and comparison respectively (P = 0.06 ). However, the percentages of mothers who actually fed their children GLV were 57%, 64% and 26% in groups 1, 2 and comparison group respect ively (P < 0.001). The influence of health education on GLV feeding pe rsisted after controlling for the effect of maternal literacy (Mantel Haenszel chi-square = 16.99; P < 0.0001) and family income (Mantel Hae nszel chi-square = 17.36; P < 0.0001). This study suggests that health education has a positive impact on mothers to feed their children GLV and should be considered in programmes aiming at alleviating vitamin A deficiency.