Health knowledge skill & practices of women in Dhansingpur VDC, Kailali District
Date
2014
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Abstract
Abstract
The study explored the role and activities of Female Community Health Volunteers(FCHV s)and mother’s groups and assessed health knowledge, skills and practices of female community members in Dhansingpur VDC of Kailali district.
All 23 FCHVs in Dhansingpur VDC, 15 of 23 mother’s group and 136 women from mother’s group and 84 who were not part of any mother’s group were included in the study. The respondents were categorized into four categories within the two broad set for assessing their health knowledge, skills and practices to better include to picsre levant to them. Based on the number of household in each ward at least two respondents in each of the category from each ward were selected as sample.
The FCHVs support to organize village and vaccination clinics in their community and also provide health services in areas such as family planning, maternal and child health care, vitamin A supplementation, de-worming and immunization. The FCHVs possess fair level of knowledge in key health topics.
The mother's groups are community groups that include mothers and adolescent girls, formed by local FCHVs with the objective of providing regular health education during monthly group meetings. The mother's groups in Dhansingpur VDC or ganiz eat least one meeting each month and also carry-out saving and credit in their groups be sides health discussion. The health discussions are facilitated by FCHV and some FCHVs also maintain group accounts.
Higher percentage of women in mother's group have correct knowledge on major health issues such as maternal and child health, reproductive health, breast fee ding and nutrition, management of diarrhea and sanitation than those not in the mother ’s group . Additionally, higher percentages of women in mother’s group utilize healthcare services, including services of FCHVs in comparison to women not in any mother’s group. The finding highlights the need for FCHVs to reach-out to other women in their communities as well, besides those in their mother's groups to improve health status in their community.
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Keywords
Health knowledge, Pregnant women