A Descriptive Study to Assess the Knowledge Regarding Vitamin A Deficiency Disorders among Mothers of Under Five Children in Selected Rural Area of District Ludhiana, Punjab (2016)

Introduction: Vitamin A deficiency(VAD) is an important cause of preventable blindness among children and a major public health problem in developing countries like India. VAD is a lack of vitamin A in blood and tissues. Vitamin A deficiency can result from inadequate intake, fat malabsorption or liver disorders. AIM: Aim of the study was to assess the knowledge regarding Vitamin A deficiency disorders among mothers of under five children in selected rural area of District Ludhiana , Punjab. Materials and Methods: Non-experimental descriptive study design was selected for the study. The pilot study was conducted in village Kishangarh, Ludhiana on 6 mothers of under five children to ensure the reliability and feasibility of tool. The final study was conducted on 60 mothers of village Kaddon, Ludhiana. Data collection procedure was done from 11^th to 18^th February by using convenience sampling technique. Self Structured Questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge of mothers of under five children. Results: It was concluded that majority of mothers 37(61.67%) had average knowledge and 23(38.33%) had good knowledge regarding Vitamin A deficiency disorders. Conclusion: Henceit can be concluded that majority of mothers had average knowledge regarding vitamin A deficiency disorders and socio-demographic variables i.e. education and occupation of mother found to be statistically significant with knowledge score of mother.