Educational Package efficacy on awareness about Malnutrition prevention among mothers in rural areas of Rajasthan, India

Background: Prolonged malnutrition adversely affects children by impairing growth and development, leading to long-term effects on individual and societal well-being. Therefore present study aims to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching program on knowledge regarding malnutrition and its prevention among mothers of under five children.

Method: Evaluative approach with pre experimental one group pretest post-test research design without control group. A sample of 54 mothers of rural areas of Kapasan, District Chittorgarh selected as sample through simple random sampling technique. Results: The mean pre – test knowledge score is 12.43 with mean percentage 51.79% and mean post –test knowledge score is 18.06 with mean percentage 75.25%. The mean difference is +5.63, showing enhancement of 26.46%. The Paired‘t’ test value was 15.08 was greater than table value (1.98 at df 53) at .05 level of significance. This shows that there is significant difference between the pre test and post test knowledge level among mothers of under 5 children after structured teaching program regarding malnutrition and its prevention. The findings revealed that there was significant association between pre test knowledge score with educational status & previous knowledge regarding malnutrition and its prevention.

Conclusion: Findings of our study strongly recommend the need for conducting education program to prevent malnutrition among mothers of under five children in selected rural areas.