Knowledge and practice on adequate sunlight exposure of infants among mothers attending EPI unit of Aleta Wondo Health Center, SNNPR, Ethiopia

Abstract

Objective The main objective of this study was to assess knowledge and practice of adequate sunlight exposure of infants among mothers attending EPI unit at Aleta Wondo Health Center, Sidama zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia. Institutional based descriptive cross sectional study design was used. 313 mothers who had under 1 year child and immunization follow-up were selected by simple random sampling technique using immunization registration book as sampling frame. Result Out of 313 respondents identified for the study 98.03% (n = 307) were responded for the interview. From the total respondents 279 (90.9%) of respondents exposed their infants to sunlight but only 62 (22%) of them exposed adequately. From 307 mothers, 191 (62.2%) are knowledgeable about sunlight exposure and 91 (32.6%) of mothers had good practice of exposing their infants to sunlight. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-019-4221-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Knowledge and Practice of Infants Exposure to Sunlight Among Lactating Mothers Attending at Yirgalem Hospital, Sidama Regional State

“…In addition, in this study, 84.7% of lactating women exposed infants to sunning irrespective of time adequacy. The finding was comparable with studies conducted in Aleta Wondo, Ethiopia 21 in which 80.1% of mothers exposed infants to sunlight. However, the finding was higher than the studies conducted in Debre Markos, 22 and Gondar, 23 which were 40% and 51.98%, respectively.…”

“…Regarding the harmful effects of solar UV radiation, only 5.5% of lactating mothers responded that sunning had side effects, irrespective of its benefita such as blindness, skin cancer, and others. Their knowledge level was significantly lower than the studies done in other parts of Ethiopia like Aleta Wondo, 21 and Debre Markos, 22 which were 48.7% and 26.8%, respectively. This indicates that most lactating mothers do not have enough information about sunning and its drawbacks since sunning might be useful for reducing neonatal jaundice and boosts vitamin D for different physiological functions in the body.…”

“…This finding was nearly comparable with the study conducted in Debre Markos (91.1%), 22 and Jimma town (99.68%). 16 However, it was higher than the report from Aleta Wondo 21 and Gondar, 23 which were 84.9% and 75.98%, respectively. The level of awareness and adequacy of health extension workers between regions/zones for the proper home to home delivery of health education might be possible factors for the variations.…”

“…This finding is in line with the study conducted in Gondar (54.4%). 23 However, variable rates of sunlight exposure practice were reported by several studies conducted in Ethiopia, such as 32.6% in Aleta Wondo, 21 and 44.6% in Debre Markos. 22 Seasonal differences between the studies might cause variation in sunlight exposure status due to rain, cloudy weather conditions, and variation in the number of sunny days.…”

“…The sample size was calculated using a single population proportion formula and considering 32.6% prevalence from the study conducted in Aleta Wondo Health Center. 21 With a 5% marginal error and 95% confidence interval (CI) level, the final sample size was calculated to be 338.…”