A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Individual Teaching Programme on Knowledge Regarding Antenatal Diet Among Multigravida Mothers with Iron Deficiency Anemia Attending Antenatal OPD in Selected Maternity Hospitals, at Selected Area

Background: Pregnancy is a prominent event in a woman’s life, able to transform her life forever. Pregnancy is a physiological state, which produces several normal and expected changes, in all the maternal organ systems. Iron is a trace mineral that is important for fetal growth and development. Iron is found in red blood cells to carry oxygen needed throughout the body. It is also essential for normal neuronal development. Folic acid is another important micronutrient used in the synthesis of neurotransmitters and particularly during early pregnancy. Hence the focus of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of individual teaching programme on Antenatal diet among multigravida mothers with iron deficiency anemia attending antenatal OPD in selected maternity hospitals, Bangalore, Karnataka.

Objectives

1. To assess the pre test knowledge of multigravida mothers regarding antenatal diet to be measured by structured interview schedule.

2. To plan and implement Individual Teaching Programme regarding antenatal diet among multigravida mothers.

3. To evaluate effectiveness of Individual Teaching Programme regarding antenatal diet among multigravida mothers.

4. To determine the association between pre test knowledge score of multigravida mothers with iron deficiency anemia regarding antenatal diet with their selected demographic variables.

Methods: A pre-experimental design and evaluative research was used in the study. The data was collected from 40subjectsin Government Hospital, Anekal, through convenient sampling technique. Data was collected using structured questionnaire.

Major Findings of the Study: Majority 56.7% of the multigravida mothers with iron deficiency anemia had inadequate knowledge and 40% had moderate knowledge in the pretest. After administration of individual teaching programme67.5% of the subjects had adequate knowledge, 22.5% had moderate knowledge and only 10% had inadequate knowledge regarding Antenatal diet in the post test.

The overall analysis of level of knowledge of multigravida mothers with iron deficiency anemia regarding Antenatal diet showed that mean knowledge scores of the subjects at pre-test were 13.6 (45.33%) with standard deviation 5.207found to be inadequate knowledge regarding Antenatal diet. After administration of individual teaching programme mean knowledge scores of the subjects was 23.48 (78.26%) with standard deviation 5.804found to be improvement in the level of knowledge among multigravida mothers with iron deficiency anemia.

Interpretation and Conclusion: Findings of the study show that there was a significant difference in pre test and post test level of knowledge of multigravida mothers with iron deficiency anemia. From this it is concluded that the individual teaching programme is effective in improving the level of knowledge of multigravida mothers with iron deficiency anemia. And there was a significant association between level of knowledge of multigravida mothers with iron deficiency anemia and selected demographic variables such as age and religion.