Systematized education on multimicronutrient supplementation and nutritional status in children

Abstract

This research was conducted at Hospital El Esfuerzo. The goal was to determine the effect of systematized education on adherence to micronutrient supplementation (SMMN) and the nutritional status of children <3 years old. The sample was made up of 50 mothers and 50 children. The survey technique was used and as instruments a questionnaire and a monitoring card applied in the pre-test and post-test. For the statistical analysis, the Student's T-test and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used. The pre-test results indicate that 74% of those mothers had inadequate adherence regarding the SMMN, and only 26% of them presented adequate adherence. However, in the posttest, 78% of them had adequate adherence, while 22% remained at inadequate adherence. Regarding nutritional status, in the pre-evaluation 60% of children were diagnosed with normal nutrition and 18% with malnutrition. However, in the post-evaluation 80% of children presented normal nutrition and 10% malnutrition. In the pre-evaluation 44% of children presented Hb within the normal range, 30% mild anemia, 20% moderate anemia, and 6% presented severe anemia. Nonetheless, in the post evaluation 72% had normal Hb, 14% moderate anemia, 10% mild anemia, and 4% severe anemia. It is concluded that the systematized education proved to be effective on the adherence of the mothers' SMMN and the nutritional status of the children. This was demonstrated through the Student's T-test, which had a significance of p= 0.000 < 0.05 in the Adherence variable, and the Nutritional Status variable (anthropometry and biochemistry), which had a significance of p= 0.000 < 0.05.