A COMPARITIVE STUDY TO ASSESS THE NUTRITIONAL AWARENESS OF RURAL AND URBAN MOTHERS  IN SOME SELECTED AREAS OF WEST BENGAL

Riddhi Gupta; Sarmistha Chakrabarti; Suniti Ghosh (Chatterjee)

Volume : VI, Issue : X, October - 2016

A COMPARITIVE STUDY TO ASSESS THE NUTRITIONAL AWARENESS OF RURAL AND URBAN MOTHERS IN SOME SELECTED AREAS OF WEST BENGAL

Riddhi Gupta, Sarmistha Chakrabarti, Suniti Ghosh Chatterjee

Abstract :

Proper nutrition is an important part of child growth and development. Mothers’ awareness regarding nutrition is utmost necessary for determining a good nutritional status of the child. Thus the present study aimed at assessing the nutritional awareness of rural and urban mothers from some regions of West Bengal. Out of total 518 mothers included in the study, the percentage of mothers educated upto secondary level followed by Graduation or Post– Graduation was higher among urban mothers (81.8%) than rural mothers (59.0%). Maternal literacy was identified as an important socio demographic variable which shows strong association with maternal nutritional awareness for both rural (X2 =41.29) and urban (X2 =11.95) mothers. Average nutritional awareness level was found quite good among both rural and urban mothers and the mean difference of Nutritional Knowledge (NK) score was statistically not significant. More knowledge enhancement of mothers is recommended by empowering them with more nutrition and health related information.