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Knowledge and practice of infant exposure to sunlight among mothers in the rural villages of Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Sunlight is essential for the synthesis of vitamin D and supports bone growth and strength. The awareness of mothers about the benefit of exposing their infants to sunlight, as well as the practice of doing so, is important to a child’s proper growth and development. The current study lo...

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Autores principales: Tadesse, Askalemariam, Yeshanew, Solomon, Gedefa, Abdi Geda
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10390293/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37529425
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1166976
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author Tadesse, Askalemariam
Yeshanew, Solomon
Gedefa, Abdi Geda
author_facet Tadesse, Askalemariam
Yeshanew, Solomon
Gedefa, Abdi Geda
author_sort Tadesse, Askalemariam
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Sunlight is essential for the synthesis of vitamin D and supports bone growth and strength. The awareness of mothers about the benefit of exposing their infants to sunlight, as well as the practice of doing so, is important to a child’s proper growth and development. The current study looked into mothers’ knowledge, practice, and factors related to infant sunlight exposure in rural villages in the Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study design was utilized with randomly selected mothers of newborns from rural areas in the Mettu district. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information. Analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS version 21 software. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were carried out, and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Among the 600 mothers who participated in the present study, 397 (66.2%) had good knowledge and 346 (57.7%) practiced proper exposure of their infants to sunlight. Out of the 482 mothers who practiced sunning, 382 (79.3%) did it daily, and 409 (84.8%) began sunning before 45 days of birth. However, 453 (94%) of the mothers used lubricants while sunbathing. Sociodemographic characteristics were found to have statistically significant associations with the level of knowledge and practice of mothers. Mothers with four to six children [AOR = 0.511, 95% CI: (0.352–0.741)] and those who got the information from health professionals [AOR = 3.285, 95% CI: (2.154, 5.011)] for the knowledge level, and mothers aged 36 years old and above [AOR = 0.801, 95% CI: (0.533, 0.161)], who were married during the data collection period [AOR = 0.370, 95% CI: (0.155, 0.884)], and employed by the government [AOR = 4.081, CI: (1.477, 11.280)] for the practice level were found to be significantly (p < 0.05) associated with the level of infant sunning. CONCLUSION: Despite the fact that the majority of mothers in the study area had good knowledge and practice of infant sunlight exposure, there are clear signs that further work is needed to narrow the large gap seen in the present findings. Thus, district and zonal health offices, as well as stakeholders working with children, should start periodical maternity health education, and professional development training for health post workers.
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spelling pubmed-103902932023-08-01 Knowledge and practice of infant exposure to sunlight among mothers in the rural villages of Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia Tadesse, Askalemariam Yeshanew, Solomon Gedefa, Abdi Geda Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: Sunlight is essential for the synthesis of vitamin D and supports bone growth and strength. The awareness of mothers about the benefit of exposing their infants to sunlight, as well as the practice of doing so, is important to a child’s proper growth and development. The current study looked into mothers’ knowledge, practice, and factors related to infant sunlight exposure in rural villages in the Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study design was utilized with randomly selected mothers of newborns from rural areas in the Mettu district. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information. Analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS version 21 software. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were carried out, and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Among the 600 mothers who participated in the present study, 397 (66.2%) had good knowledge and 346 (57.7%) practiced proper exposure of their infants to sunlight. Out of the 482 mothers who practiced sunning, 382 (79.3%) did it daily, and 409 (84.8%) began sunning before 45 days of birth. However, 453 (94%) of the mothers used lubricants while sunbathing. Sociodemographic characteristics were found to have statistically significant associations with the level of knowledge and practice of mothers. Mothers with four to six children [AOR = 0.511, 95% CI: (0.352–0.741)] and those who got the information from health professionals [AOR = 3.285, 95% CI: (2.154, 5.011)] for the knowledge level, and mothers aged 36 years old and above [AOR = 0.801, 95% CI: (0.533, 0.161)], who were married during the data collection period [AOR = 0.370, 95% CI: (0.155, 0.884)], and employed by the government [AOR = 4.081, CI: (1.477, 11.280)] for the practice level were found to be significantly (p < 0.05) associated with the level of infant sunning. CONCLUSION: Despite the fact that the majority of mothers in the study area had good knowledge and practice of infant sunlight exposure, there are clear signs that further work is needed to narrow the large gap seen in the present findings. Thus, district and zonal health offices, as well as stakeholders working with children, should start periodical maternity health education, and professional development training for health post workers. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10390293/ /pubmed/37529425 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1166976 Text en Copyright © 2023 Tadesse, Yeshanew and Gedefa. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Tadesse, Askalemariam
Yeshanew, Solomon
Gedefa, Abdi Geda
Knowledge and practice of infant exposure to sunlight among mothers in the rural villages of Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia
title Knowledge and practice of infant exposure to sunlight among mothers in the rural villages of Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia
title_full Knowledge and practice of infant exposure to sunlight among mothers in the rural villages of Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia
title_fullStr Knowledge and practice of infant exposure to sunlight among mothers in the rural villages of Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge and practice of infant exposure to sunlight among mothers in the rural villages of Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia
title_short Knowledge and practice of infant exposure to sunlight among mothers in the rural villages of Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia
title_sort knowledge and practice of infant exposure to sunlight among mothers in the rural villages of mettu district, southwest ethiopia
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10390293/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37529425
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1166976
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