An intervention to improve the knowledge of anganwadi workers pertaining to growth monitoring in rural areas of Varanasi district, India

Abstract

Background: Growth monitoring is one of the important functions of anganwadi workers (AWWs), for which they should have sufficient knowledge and training. With this background it was hypothesized that educational intervention can make a difference in the level of knowledge of AWWs in regard to growth monitoring. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the changes in knowledge of Anganwadi workers regarding growth monitoring through knowledge up-gradation training. Methodology: It was a field based interventional study, which was conducted on 66 AWWs each from Chiraigaon (intervention) and Cholapur (control) blocks of Varanasi district. The primary tool in this study was a pre-designed and pretested interview schedule for collecting information’s pertaining to study objective. Results: The mean score of knowledge was around 19.7 (max. Score was 30) in both the blocks during baseline survey and almost all the AWWs were having either average or good knowledge of growth monitoring. Post intervention a significant (p<0.01) difference has been observed between the mean knowledge scores of AWWs in intervention (25.32±2.44) and control (20.35±2.70) blocks and as much as 48.5% of AWWs were having excellent knowledge about growth monitoring in Chiraigaon block (p<0.01), while the situation was unchanged in Cholapur block. Conclusion: The knowledge up-gradation was found effective in improving the knowledge status of AWWs with regard to growth monitoring.