Effectiveness of information, education and communication package on knowledge and expressed practices of prevention and management of common problems during infancy.

A Pre Experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of Information, Education and communication package on knowledge and expressed practices of prevention and management of common problems during infancy on mothers of infant in Srirangam, Trichy, 2010. Objectives 1. To assess the knowledge of prevention and management of common problems during infancy on mothers of infant before and after IEC package. 2. To assess the expressed practices of prevention and management of common problems during infancy on mothers of infant before and after IEC package. 3. To determine the relationship between the knowledge and expressed practices of prevention and management of common problems during infancy on mothers of infant. 4. To determine the association between the knowledge of prevention and management of common problems during infancy on mothers of infant with selected background variables. 5. To determine the association between the expressed practices of prevention and management of common problems during infancy on mothers of infant with selected background variables. Conceptual framework : Rosenstock’s and Becker’s health belief model. Research design : Pre experimental design O1 X O2 Population : mothers of infant. Sample size : 40 mothers of infant. Sampling technique : non probability convenience sampling Setting : Srirangam community area, Trichy. Tool : knowledge and expressed practice questionnaire. Data collection Pretest was administered for 30 minutes to each mother and the Information, education and communication package was given to the participants for 90 minutes. The investigator had completed 3 samples daily and after15 days, posttest was administered to assess the knowledge and expressed practice. Data analysis The analysis was done by SPSS 13th version using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation ) and inferential statistics (paired ‘t’ test, correlation and chi square test) to test the research hypotheses. Major findings 1. The mean pretest level of knowledge is higher than the mean post test level of knowledge. 2. The mean pretest level of expressed practice is higher than the mean post test level of expressed practice. 3. There is significant improvement in the level of knowledge and expressed practice after administering the IEC package which shows the IEC given was effective. 4. There was a positive correlation between the post test knowledge and post test expressed practice of mothers. 5. Significant association was found between the posttest knowledge and background variables of mothers of infant such as education (p < 0.01), occupation (p < 0.01), family income (p < 0.05) and source of information (p < 0.05). 6. Significant association was found between the post test level of expressed practice and selected back ground variables of mothers of infant such as education (p < 0.05), occupation (p < 0.01), family income (p < 0.05), Type of family (p < 0.05) and source of information (p < 0.01). Conclusion There was an improvement in the knowledge and expressed practice of mothers of infants regarding prevention and management of common problems during infancy after IEC package. There was a strong relationship between knowledge and expressed practices of prevention and management of common problems during infancy on mothers of infants. Therefore, if the knowledge of the mother increased, simultaneously the expressed practice also increased. The background variables of mothers of infants such as education, occupation, family income and source of information play a major role in knowledge. There was a significant association found between expressed practices and certain background variables of mothers of infants such as educational status of mothers, occupation and source of information