Barriers to Infant and Child-feeding Practices: A Qualitative Study of Primary Caregivers in Rural Uganda.
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Date
2015-03
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the barriers to the use of appropriate infant and young childfeeding
practices by primary caregivers living in a rural Ugandan district. A community-based qualitative
design and focus group discussions were used for collecting data from primary caregivers of children aged
0 to 24 month(s). On an average, each of the four focus group discussions had 11 participants. The focus
group discussions were conducted using a structured interview guide and were tape-recorded. The recorded
data were later transcribed and analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis techniques. All the participants
were females, and the majority had low levels of education and at least one child in the age-group of 0-24
month(s) in their household. The findings show that the main barriers to the use of appropriate infant and
young child-feeding practices fall under four themes: caregiver’s knowledge about breastfeeding, caregiver’s
knowledge about complimentary feeding, influence of culture custodians on the caregivers, and patterns
and burden of other responsibilities the caregivers have in the household. The four categories of barriers
imply that there are various missed opportunities to implement hospital and community-based interventions
to improve infant and young child-feeding practices, which is one way of preventing malnutrition.
Therefore, in rural areas of Uganda, the major factors responsible for the high prevalence of malnutrition
among infants and children are still those related to knowledge, culture, and social status of the primary
caregivers.
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Keywords
Feeding practices, Infant-feeding, Malnutrition, Primary caregivers, Qualitative methods, Rural area, Uganda
Citation
Nankumbi Joyce, Muliira Joshua K. Barriers to Infant and Child-feeding Practices: A Qualitative Study of Primary Caregivers in Rural Uganda. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition. 2015 Mar; 33(1): 106-116.