International Journal of Nursing Education

Abstract

In India every year, almost two million Indian children die before their fifth birthday and the causes of which can be prevented by breastfeeding. "Unquestionable global evidence demonstrates that breastfeeding counselling and support is the most important child-survival intervention," Dr. Victor Aguayo.1

In this study knowledge and attitude of fathers towards breastfeeding was assessed by breastfeeding knowledge questionnaire and breastfeeding attitude scale. The study was done in 200 fathers who visited selected 2 hospitals in Mangalore. The hospitals and the fathers were selected by purposive sampling. The study findings revealed that 150 (75 %) fathers had average knowledge. Regarding the attitude of fathers towards breastfeeding it was found that 142 (71%) had favourable attitude. There was a weak positive correlation between knowledge and attitude of fathers regarding breastfeeding. There was significant association between knowledge and attitude of fathers towards breastfeeding and demographic variables like education of father, education of spouse, occupation of father, monthly family income, total number of children and number of children below 3 years .The demographic variables age, religion, and occupation of spouse had association only with knowledge regarding breastfeeding while nativity had association only with attitude towards breastfeeding.

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