Abstract:  Background: Optimal infant and young child feeding during the first two years of life is essential to optimum child development and health. While the link between feeding practices and child health outcomes is well documented, little is known about the determinants of these feeding practices in Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to better understand factors associated with appropriate child feeding among Indonesian children 6–23 months of age.

Methods: Interviewers conducted interviews with 1498 mothers of children 6–23 months of age to identify practices. Measures of feeding practices included dietary diversity, meal frequency, and minimum acceptable diet. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with dietary diversity and separately with meal frequency.

Results: After adjusting for covariates, increased maternal education was associated with improved dietary diversity. Age of child [OR=1.11], knowledge of stunting [OR=1.80], and having ever received nutrition information [OR=1.89] were also associated with greater dietary diversity. Wealth [OR=0.86] and age of child [OR=0.92] were inversely associated with meal frequency. Maternal education, age of child, being a male child, knowledge of stunting, and having received nutrition information increased the odds of the child consuming a minimum acceptable diet.

Conclusion: Increasing maternal education, knowledge of stunting, and knowledge of nutrition may improve dietary diversity while poverty alleviation has the potential to improve minimum meal frequency. These findings corroborate similar studies and confirm the importance of government efforts that help girls stay in school, improve families’ understanding of nutrition, and reduce poverty.

Keywords:  Dietary diversity, Meal frequency, Nutrition, Children, Indonesia.

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Abstract:  Child undernutrition and stunting remain serious public health problems in Indonesia. According to the Health Belief Model, increasing mothers’ knowledge of stunting is fundamental to establishing accurate threat perceptions predictive of behavior change. The purpose of this study was to increase understanding of factors related to maternal knowledge of stunting in Indonesia by addressing three questions: 1) How familiar with stunting are Indonesian mothers? 2) What antecedent factors do Indonesian mothers associate with stunting? and 3) What health effects do Indonesian mothers associate with stunting? A total of 3,150 mothers participated in structured face-to-face interviews. Study measures targeted four main variables. Mothers were asked: 1) Have you heard of stunting?; 2) Have you heard of shortness?; 3) What causes stunting/shortness?; and 4) What are the effects of stunting? Only 66 (2.1%) mothers reported having heard of, read about, or knew something about stunting. Approximately two-thirds of participants attributed stunting to hereditary factors. Interrupted growth (33.7%), idiocy (13.8%), and easy to get sick (11.8%) were identified as health effects of stunting. Results highlight the need for health promotion and education efforts focused on increasing basic knowledge of stunting, its causes, and its health effects among Indonesian mothers.

Keywords:  Stunting, knowledge, childhood nutrition, Indonesia, Health Belief Model.

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