Practice of Sunlight Exposure of Infants and Associated Factors Among Infant Coupled Mothers at Dejen District, Amhara Region, Northwest Ethiopia 2021

Introduction: Currently, nutritional rickets has become a concern of many nutrition experts in many countries. Sunlight is the best and most reliable Source of vitamin D. Since, there is scarce information regarding infant sunlight exposure practice and the determinant factors. Hence, this study aimed to assess mothers’ infant sunlight exposure, practice level, and associated factors. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 884 mothers from March 20 to April 4, 2017. Through the multi-stage simple random sampling method, the study areas had selected. The data were collected using a structured and pre-tested questionnaire and were entered into Epidata version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. The strength of association was measured using binary logistic regression at a 95% CI odds ratio. Finally, P < .05% was declared statistically significant. Results: From 884 infant coupled mothers, 866 were recruited in the study with a response rate of 97.9%. Only 44% of mothers had good practice of infant sunlight exposure. In multivariate analyses; Knowledge status (AOR = 1.4, 95% CI: 1.0-1.9), Attitude status (AOR = 1.4, 95% CI: 1.1-1.9), mothers age group (AOR = 8.6, 95% CI: 5.1-14.4), mothers educational status (AOR = 5.2, 95% CI: 1.6-16.9), delivery at health facility (AOR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.0-2.1), and friend influence (AOR = 1.6, 95% CI: 1.2-2.1) were significantly associated with maternal exposure status of their infants to sunlight. Conclusion: This finding showed that the majority of the mothers did not expose their infants to sunlight appropriately. The mother’s knowledge, attitude, educational status, institutional delivery, and friend influence were the significant factors and needs to work on these.