Women’s Knowledge of Good Nutrition and Feeding Practices Is Correlated with Their Level of Exposure to Awareness-Raising Activities in Ouagadougou †
by
and
Mélanie Antoine
1,*, 
Stéphanie Zoungrana
1,
Jérôme W. Somé
2,
Hermann B. Lanou
2,
Séni Kouanda
2 and
Claire Mouquet-Rivier
1 1
UMR QualiSud, University of Montpellier, Avignon University, CIRAD, Institut Agro, IRD, University of La Réunion, Montpellier 34394, France
2
Département Biomédical et Santé Publique, IRSS (Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé), Ouagadougou 03 BP 7192, Burkina Faso
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Presented at the 14th European Nutrition Conference FENS 2023, Belgrade, Serbia, 14–17 November 2023.
Proceedings 2023, 91(1), 93; https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023091093
Published: 29 November 2023
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of The 14th European Nutrition Conference FENS 2023)
Abstract
:Malnutrition still affects the population in low-income countries. In Burkina Faso, the estimated prevalence of anemia is high among preschool-aged children and women of childbearing age (83.4% and 53%, respectively in 2014). As part of the MERIEM fortification project, a survey was carried out in 2022 in Ouagadougou to describe dietary practices and women’s knowledge. The aim of this work is to assess the association between exposure to nutrition sensitization campaigns and women’s knowledge of nutrition. A cross-sectional survey conducted in Ouagadougou in March 2022 involved 794 randomly selected women. Socio-economic data were collected, and knowledge scores on breastfeeding (BF; max 9), complementary feeding practices (IYCF; max 8) and nutritional status (NS; max 7) of young children, the feeding practices of pregnant (PW; max 4) and breastfeeding women (BW; max 4), and fortified products (FP; max 18) and vitamins and minerals (VM; max 13) were calculated. Exposure to nutrition sensitizations was categorized as low, moderate, or high. Linear regression models (performed with R software version 4.3.0) were used to analyze the association between knowledge scores and household wealth quintiles, as well as the association between knowledge scores and sensitization scores from the MERIEM project, adjusted for wealth quintiles. Mean scores measured in the sample are 4.7, 2.9, 2.6, 1.4, 1.8, 2.7, and 3.1 for BF, IYCF, NS, PW, BW, FP, and VM, respectively. Knowledge scores increased significantly (p < 0.001) with socio-economic status, except for NS, PW, and BW scores. In total, 78.0% of women had a low level of awareness and only 6.3% had a high level. Exposure to nutrition awareness campaigns increases all women’s knowledge, but not for breastfeeding. This is probably due to the wide promotion of breastfeeding practices among the population, particularly in health centers. The MERIEM-specific project’s awareness-raising activities are overall not associated with knowledge scores. However, there was a significant association with IYCD and VM scores (p < 0.05). Knowledge of diet and nutrition is overall low in Burkina Faso. Raising awareness seems to have a positive effect on knowledge levels and can be a lever in the fight against malnutrition. Further research is needed to determine whether improved knowledge scores translate into improved practices.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, S.Z., J.W.S., H.B.L., S.K. and C.M.-R.; Methodology, S.Z., J.W.S., H.B.L. and C.M.-R.; Investigation, S.Z., J.W.S. and H.B.L.; Formal Analysis, M.A.; Data Curation, S.Z. and M.A.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, M.A.; Writing—Review & Editing, C.M.-R. and M.A.; Supervision, C.M.-R.; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (ID OPP1181284) and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD–CZZ216701D). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis or decision to publish.
Institutional Review Board Statement
The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the national Ethics Committee of Burkina Faso, (CERS/2021.03.067).
Informed Consent Statement
Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Data Availability Statement
Data cannot be shared due to privacy.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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MDPI and ACS Style
Antoine, M.; Zoungrana, S.; Somé, J.W.; Lanou, H.B.; Kouanda, S.; Mouquet-Rivier, C. Women’s Knowledge of Good Nutrition and Feeding Practices Is Correlated with Their Level of Exposure to Awareness-Raising Activities in Ouagadougou. Proceedings 2023, 91, 93. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023091093
AMA Style
Antoine M, Zoungrana S, Somé JW, Lanou HB, Kouanda S, Mouquet-Rivier C. Women’s Knowledge of Good Nutrition and Feeding Practices Is Correlated with Their Level of Exposure to Awareness-Raising Activities in Ouagadougou. Proceedings. 2023; 91(1):93. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023091093
Chicago/Turabian StyleAntoine, Mélanie, Stéphanie Zoungrana, Jérôme W. Somé, Hermann B. Lanou, Séni Kouanda, and Claire Mouquet-Rivier. 2023. "Women’s Knowledge of Good Nutrition and Feeding Practices Is Correlated with Their Level of Exposure to Awareness-Raising Activities in Ouagadougou" Proceedings 91, no. 1: 93. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023091093
