Vol. 2, Issue 6, Part E (2016)

Objective: The objective of the present study was to assess the knowledge of mothers with children aged 0-23 months regarding neonatal jaundice attending immunisation clinic at a tertiary care hospital of Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh.

Methodology: A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted at immunisation clinic, KG’s Medical University. Systematic random sampling was done and a total of 240 mothers with children aged 0-23 months old attending immunisation clinic were interviewed. A pretested questionnaire was adopted after a short pilot study.

Results: About 80.0% of the mothers had heard about neonatal jaundice. Out of 192 mothers 91.6% were aware about neonatal jaundice. About 68.7% of the mothers were aware about fever as a danger sign. 53.6% of mothers opined that consuming special food could prevent neonatal jaundice while about one-fifth (18.7%) believed that use of medicine could prevent neonatal jaundice.

Conclusions: This study revealed that mothers had suboptimal and inadequate knowledge about neonatal jaundice. Therefore more health education on neonatal jaundice should be given to all mothers during each and every opportunity.