Maternal knowledge and beliefs about child growth monitoring and promotion program based on the Health Belief Model and its relationship with child growth parameters

The efficacy of Growth Monitoring and Promotion (GMP) program depends on active participation. However, its low acceptance by mothers is believed to reduce their participation in the program.

This study aims to assess maternal beliefs and knowledge about GMP and examine its association with the child growth parameters.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 470 mother-child dyads who were recruited from public health centers of Ahvaz and Bushehr cities from August 2018 to February 2019 using a convenient sampling method. A questionnaire surveying anthropometric and socio-demographic characteristics as well as maternal knowledge and beliefs based on the Health Belief Model (HBM)was used to gather data. Child growth parameters were obtained from their medical records. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to determine the predictors of child growth parameters from among the HBM domains.

The mothers had a mean age of 29.56±5.10 years, and 92% had a planned pregnancy. Favorable growth percentage based on parameters of length-for-age, weight-for-age, weight-for-length and head circumference-for-age was 94.3%, 93.2%, 90.6%, and 93.1%, respectively. The mean scores for HBM constracts of self-efficacy, cues to action, risk susceptibility, barriers to action, benefits to action, risk severity, and GMP knowledge were 64.09±9.92, 89.95±11.77, 44.71±6.73, 54.81±10.52, 60.23±9.59, 66.52±9.33, and 46.83±5.44, respectively. Higher GMP knowledge was associated with higher weight-for-length (β=0.345, 95%CI; 0.064- 0.625, P=0.016) and head circumference-for-age (β=0.287, 95%CI; 0.022- 0.596, P=0.025). Higher weight-for-age was significantly associated with higher scores of GMP knowledge (β=0.409, 95%CI; 0.011-0.806, P=0.044), barriers to action (β=0.155, 95%CI; 0.025-0.284, P=0.019) and cues to action (β=0.190, P=0.03, 95%CI; 0.017- 0.362).

Mothers’ beliefs and knowledge about GMP can affect child growth and should be considered in educational interventions to increase their participation in GMP program and ultimately improve their child growth.