Assessment of mothers' knowledge and practices of nutrition for children under five at Mudug Regional Hospital in Galkacyo, Somalia, 2023

Abstract Introduction: Malnutrition, commonly referred to as undernutrition, is a medical disease brought on by not eating enough food overall, not eating enough of the proper kinds of foods, or the body's inability to process the food that is consumed. Objectives: To assess the nutritional knowledge and practice of underfive children among mothers in Mudug regional hospital, Galkacyo, Somalia. Methodology: data was collected primary and secondary source. Primary data was obtained by distributed of questionnaire to the respondents while the secondary data was obtained by the existing reports, books and magazines. Result: The distribution of educational level of the respondents’ level was illiterate, 19.3% of the respondents were primary level, 4.4% of the respondents were secondary level, and 0.8% of the respondents were university level. The distribution of economic level of the respondents The majority (57.7%) of the respondents their income is less than $100, 36.5% of the respondents their income is between $100 and $300, and 6.2 of the respondents their income is above $300. Regarding to the knowledge of the respondents majority of the respondents have moderate knowledge about nutrition. According to their knowledge of malnutrition the majority of the respondents (66.93%) have knowledge about malnutrition, while 33.07% have no knowledge about malnutrition. Regarding to the practices of preterm baby majority of the respondents has poor practices. According to their practice of breast milk at birth majority of the respondents 52.86% does not breast feed at birth while 47.14% of respondents was breastfed at birth. Conclusion: The mothers' economic status was very low, and their education was mostly illiterate, which is why their knowledge about child nutrition and practice is low, except for some mothers who receive awareness about breast feeding and the feeding practices of children from MCH.