Abstract
Background:
Breastfeeding is essential for a child’s growth and development, and beneficial for both mother and child. Nutritionists are at the forefront of promoting exclusive breastfeeding and are expected to have good knowledge, attitudes, and intentions towards breastfeeding. However, there is no information on the breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, and intentions among female nutrition and dietetics students.
Research Aim:
This study aimed to assess the breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, and intentions of human nutrition and dietetics students in Nigeria.
Methods:
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 154 proportionately sampled Human Nutrition and Dietetics students using a validated, structured, web-based, self-administered questionnaire to obtain information. The questionnaire was developed based on previous literature from which questions and scales were constructed. Each variable (knowledge, attitude, and intention) was scored and categorized. The data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 26).
Results:
The mean age of the students was 20.97 ± 2.9 years. About 80% of the students indicated that breastfeeding should be initiated within 1 hour of birth and a correct definition of exclusive breastfeeding was given by 76.3% of the students. Of all the students, 89.9% had good breastfeeding knowledge, 93.5% students had a positive attitude towards breastfeeding, while about three out of 10 students had poor breastfeeding intention. Almost all (92.4%) students who had a positive attitude towards breastfeeding had good knowledge of breastfeeding (X2 = 16.3, p = 0.000).
Conclusion:
This study revealed that the students possessed good breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes towards breastfeeding. This shows an increased likelihood of an increased rate of breastfeeding practices in the future.
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