Maternal literacy and anthropometric indices of under-five children in a Unviersty Town south east, Nigeria

Background: Maternal knowledge is one of the crucial factors that explains differential in child nutrition, development and health outcome. Objective: The study determined the relationship between maternal literacy and anthropometric indices of children (0-5 years) in a university town in south east of Nigeria. Methods: This cross-sectional design study used multistage sampling technique to select 910 mother/child pairs from selected health centres in the town. Questionnaire and anthropometry were used to collect data. The questionnaire elicited information on demographic, socio-economic characteristics, and infant/young child feeding practices of the mothers. Weight and length/height of the children were measured using standard procedures. BMI-for-age, weight-for-height and height-for-age were obtained and compared with the WHO child growth standard. Statistical Package and Service Solution version 21 was used to analyze the data. Significance was accepted at p < 0.05. Results: About 46.0% children were 0 - 6 months, 45.0% mothers had above secondary education, 4.3% had no formal education and 33% had adequate nutritional knowledge. The prevalence of wasting, stunting and underweight were 14.6%, 13.6% and 19.0%, respectively. Stunting was significantly (p < 0.05) higher among children with illiterate mothers (26.1%) than those with literate mothers (12.9%). No significant (P > 0.05) difference was found among wasting, BMI-for-age and maternal literacy. Conclusion: The prevalence of under-weight, stunting and wasting was high in the study area, despite high maternal literacy. There is need for nutrition education on behavioral change to ensure adequate infant and young child feeding practices to improve nutritional status of the children.Keywords: Nutritional status, children, maternal literacy, Nigeri