Knowledge, Attitude and Practice toward Nutrition among Communities in Southern Senatorial Zone of Borno State

Abstract

Nutrition is a key element of health promotion, prevention, and management of diseases. The study was aimed at assessing the nutritional knowledge, attitude, and practice of communities and to determine factors influencing the nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and practices of these communities. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 10 communities. Multistage sampling was used to select the sample size of 1000 individuals. The study utilized both primary and secondary data through journals and administration of a self-developed structured interviewer questionnaire and focus group discussions. The data was analyzed using statistical package for social science (SPSS v20). Results were presented using descriptive statistics and Chi-square. The findings of the study revealed that communities have little or no knowledge about nutrition despite the availability of different sources of nutritional information, majority of communities have a negative attitude towards the importance of nutrition because of their Cultural beliefs. Moreso, majority communities do not prepare balanced family meals. The result from chi-square analysis shows that age and source of nutritional knowledge are the main factors influencing nutritional knowledge and education level, marital status, and sources of family income are the main factors influencing nutritional practices among communities. Base on the findings of the study it was recommended among others that there is need to increased public awareness and enlightenment to improve the attitude and practice of communities, community leaders and health workers to promote good dietary habits and consumption of good indigenous food to motivate practice among communities.