Maternal and child health knowledge of rural mothers

Abstract

The present study was conducted in five villages of Hisar district in order to assess knowledge levels of rural mothers (having children up to five years of age) with regard to maternal and child health. The study was conducted on 300 rural mothers. A checklist was developed under All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP), ICAR to test the knowledge levels of rural mothers which included health, nutrition and hygiene aspects. The checklist categorized the knowledge levels as low, average and high. Information on socio economic statusof the respondents viz. education level, family income, husband's occupation, caste, number of children and newspaper subscription etc. was obtained using SES scale developed by Aggrawal et al. (2005). Frequencies and percentages were calculated to analyze the data. Monthly income of most of the respondent was Rs. 5000-Rs.20000. Most of them were educated up to matric or 10+2, belonged to SC/ST community, had four children and subscribed no newspaper. Majority of rural mothers had average level of knowledge regarding maternal and child health care.