Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Mothers to Neonatal Jaundice

Background: Neonatal severe hyperbilirubinemia represents a significant, yet preventable health problem, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)¹⁶. Adequate maternal knowledge, early perception, and care seeking behavior are fundamental components of effective management of NNJ 7. A number of studies revealed unexpected moderate knowledge and attitude scores of mothers in most knowledge domains, although the majority of them were illiterate or had low educational attainment. Aim of the study: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice responses of women during reproductive age toward neonatal jaundice and response correlation to demographic characteristics. Patients and Method: In this hospital based study, in order to evaluate the knowledge background of ladies of reproductive age toward neonatal jaundice regarding causes, clinical manifestation, complications, mode of treatment and other aspects in addition to their attitude regarding conventional and traditional medical approaches and how to behave when facing the problem of neonatal jaundice, a sample of women was selected according to the duration of study. Results: Most of women admit to know 2 symptoms of jaundice, where as small proportion of women knew only one symptom of jaundice, 80.2 % versus 15.8 %, respectively. Four women (4%) know none of symptoms of jaundice. Regarding dangerous symptoms of jaundice, most of women (88.1 %) knew a single symptom and a few of them (4 %) knew 3 symptoms. Positive attitude toward neonatal was seen in significantly high proportion of women enrolled in the study. Positive practice was correlated to older age, higher level of education and higher birth order Conclusion: Knowledge, attitude and behavior of women about various aspects of neonatal jaundice were significantly better in older women in comparison with younger women, and highly significant better with increasing birth order, as well as it was significantly better in employee and with higher level of education.