Maternal Misconceptions Against Infant Sunlight Exposure Are Still Bottlenecks in Northwest Ethiopia, by 2022

BACKGROUND: Sunlight has been used for therapeutic purposes for neonatal jaundice. Exposure to sunlight is vital for the synthesis of vitamin D. Lack of exposure to sunlight is the single most important cause of rickets. Rickets is a major public health problem in many countries of the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Vitamin D deficiency due to low exposure to sunlight, suboptimal exclusive breastfeeding, and low vitamin D intake is one of the health problems in Ethiopia. The implementation of the strategy has remained inconsistent and lacked focus on factors that influence maternal practice, excluding infants from getting adequate sunlight. OBJECTIVE: To assess knowledge, practices, and factors affecting sunlight exposure of infants among women attending Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia, 2022. METHODS: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted through patient interviews at Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital from May 2022 to July 2022. Study participants were selected using a systematic random sampling method. A pretest was conducted on 5% (18) of participants before the actual data collection began. The data were collected by five BSc midwives. Data were entered into EpiData version 4.6.2 and exported to SPSS Software version 25 for further analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out to test the association between each independent variable and the dependent variable. At 95% CI, variables with a p-value < 0.05 in the multivariate logistic regression model were considered as associated factors. RESULTS: About 67.5% and 62.1% of the mothers had good knowledge and good practice regarding adequate sunlight exposure, respectively. Mother’s age, mother’s educational status, marital status, and family size were the factors associated with sunlight exposure in multinomial logistic regression. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: According to our study, participants did not have good knowledge and practice regarding sunlight exposure of infants. Therefore, health education focusing on the importance of sunlight exposure is important to improve the knowledge and practice of mothers towards sunlight exposure of their infants.