| dc.description.abstract | In Narok County, Kenya, where the challenge of achieving optimal child nutrition persists, particularly
in the context of its arid and semi-arid climate, the prevalence of stunting among children is alarmingly
high compared to other regions. Addressing this critical issue necessitates an enhancement of caregivers’
nutrition knowledge. However, scant information is available on the nutritional knowledge of caregivers
responsible for children aged 6 to 23 months, a gap that extends beyond Narok County to encompass
broader regions in Africa, including Kenya. Consequently, this study was designed to examine the nutritional
knowledge of caregivers within Narok County for children in this age group. All approvals including
ethical clearance from Kabarak University Research and Ethics Committee (KUREC), research permit
from NACOSTI and permit from Narok County Referral Hospital were sought before commencement of
the study. This research adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design, and fisher’s formula was used to
calculate a sample size of 108 caregivers to children aged 6 to 23 months who were purposively recruited.
Data were analysed using SPSS version 25 and ENA SMART soft wares. The results indicate a variation in
caregivers’ nutrition knowledge levels, with 37.0% demonstrating a high level of knowledge, while 27.8%
exhibited low knowledge. Moderate knowledge levels were observed in 14.8% of caregivers, while 9.3%
had very low knowledge. Furthermore, there was a low positive correlation observed between nutrition
knowledge and Height-for-Age Z-score (HAZ), with a correlation coefficient of r=0.235 and a p-value
of 0.014. Significantly, HAZ exhibited a higher percentage of normal scores when compared to stunted
children (p-value: 0.05*). In conclusion, the study found significant variation in caregivers’ nutrition
knowledge across the region, which in turn had an impact on the nutritional outcomes of the children.
Therefore, we recommend targeted and continuous nutrition education to care-givers of children in Narok
County. Caregivers with better nutrition knowledge tend to provide better nutrition to their children.
There is need to train and capacity build community health workers to have necessary knowledge and
skills for effective nutrition education. | en_US |
