Factors Influencing Vitamin a Supplementation among Mothers of Children under Five Years Old at Mbagathi District Hospital, Kenya.

BACKGROUND Vitamin A supplementation is one of the best-proven and most costeffective interventions to improve vitamin A status and save children's lives. OBJECTIVE To assess factors affecting practices and utilisation of Vitamin A supplementation services among mothers with children below five years attending Mbagathi District Hospital. DESIGN Cross-sectional descriptive study. SETTING Mbagathi District Hospital (MDH) Maternal and Child Health Clinic (MCH) and Paediatric Out Patient Department (POPD). SUBJECTS Mothers attending MDH MCH and POPD. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Utilisation, Practices and Awareness of vitamin A supplementation (VAS). RESULTS A total of one hundred and fifty eight respondents were interviewed. About a half (52%) of the respondents had their children up to date with VAS while less than a half (43%) of the mothers had received vitamin A after delivery. Three quarters of the respondents'children had missed the vitamin A capsule because they were either not aware of schedule (41%) or had stopped coming to clinic (35%). This notwithstanding, 91% of the respondents neither encountered any problems when seeking VAS services nor had negative beliefs or superstitions about vitamin A. CONCLUSION The main factors affecting utilisation of VAS services was lack of information and awareness among both health workers and mothers. These services are averagely well utilised at MDH though still below the National 80% coverage target.