Matching between maternal knowledge about infant development and care for children under one year old.
Ellen Cristina Gondim, Luiz Guilherme Dácar da Silva Scorzafave, Daniel Domingues Dos Santos and 3 others
PMID 36287398WHAT IT FOUND
Mothers knew more about infant safety and milestones than about development principles and parenting practices.
Care partly matched knowledge, but many used devices and few read books.
Key findings
01Mothers answered 62.9% of 21 infant development questions correctly, with the lowest domain score in Principles (52.8%) and the highest in Norms/Milestones (85.9%).
02At the child's 12th to 13th month, 79.3% of children used electronic devices offered by mothers, and only 27.3% had a habit of being read books.
03A 1% higher correct-answer score on the knowledge questions was linked to a 68.6% higher chance of mothers seeking care information.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
All data came from mothers' self-reported answers, and the study did not measure infant developmental outcomes or test whether education changed care. It followed only 121 mothers from one health district in Brazil, and 56 eligible participants were lost, so results may not apply elsewhere. The analysis found associations, not causes; many subgroup cells were small, especially by schooling and income. Knowledge was assessed with only 21 selected KIDI questions, not the full inventory. The study focused on mothers only and the first year, not fathers or other caregivers.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict-of-interest declaration is provided in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving maternal knowledge will improve infant care or development. This study measured associations in one group of mothers and did not test an educational programme or child outcomes.