Abstract

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions nationally and internationally. All ages are affected resulting in physiological and psychological health consequences. Obesity-related habits that begin in childhood may continue into adulthood suggesting the need for developmentally targeted approaches. Efforts to reduce obesity should begin early in life with interventions targeting infants and young children. Is there a difference in infant feeding attitudes, the initiation of breastfeeding practice, the introduction of solid foods practice, and child weight-for-length percentiles at 12, 18, and 24 months between mothers who participated in a prenatal infant nutrition education session and mothers who did not participate? The purpose of this research is to determine if relationships exist between prenatal infant nutrition education and maternal attitudes and practices related to infant feeding and child weight-for-length percentiles at 12, 18, and 24 months of age. An Ex post facto design was used in the study in order to determine if relationships exist among the variables of interest. Two groups of mother/child dyads were compared to determine if significant differences existed. Statistical analyses for this study included Analysis of Covariance, Binary Logistic Regression, and General Linear Mixed Model. Data analysis failed to support any statistically significant correlation between participation in an infant nutrition education program and infant feeding attitudes, infant feeding practices and child weight-for-length percentiles while controlling for maternal age, race, parity, level of education and marital status.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 10663574; ProQuest document ID: 1946605725. The author still retains copyright.

Authors

Connie S. Lewis

Author Details

Connie S. Lewis, PhD, RN

Sigma Membership

Lambda Mu

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Other

Research Approach

Quantitative Research

Keywords:

Infant Nutrition, Maternal Feeding Practices, Child Health

Advisor

Joey P. Granger

Degree

PhD

Degree Grantor

The University of Mississippi Medical Center

Degree Year

2016

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2019-11-20

Full Text of Presentation

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