Needs and Barriers of Teen Mothers in Rural Eastern Uganda: Stakeholders’ Perceptions Regarding Maternal/Child Nutrition and Health
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Date
2018-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract
For adolescent mothers in rural Eastern Uganda, nutrition and health may be compromised
by many factors. Identifying individual and environmental needs and barriers at local levels is
important to inform community-based interventions. This qualitative study used interviews based
on constructs from social cognitive theory. 101 adolescent mothers, family members, health-related
personnel and community workers in Budondo sub-county (Jinja district), eastern Uganda were
interviewed. Young mothers had needs, related to going back to school, home-based small
businesses; social needs, care support and belonging to their families, employment, shelter, clothing,
personal land and animals, medical care and delivery materials. Barriers to meeting their needs
included: lack of skills in income generation and food preparation, harsh treatment, pregnancy
and childcare costs, lack of academic qualifications, lack of adequate shelter and land, lack of
foods to make complementary feeds for infants, insufficient access to medicines, tailored health
care and appropriate communications. Using the social cognitive framework, this study identified
myriad needs of young mothers and barriers to improving maternal/child nutrition and health.
Adolescent-mother-and-child-friendly environments are needed at local levels while continuing to
reduce broader socio-cultural and economic barriers to health equity. Findings may help direct future
interventions for improved adolescent maternal/child nutrition and health.
Description
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords
Teen maternal health - Uganda, Adolescent pregnancy - Uganda, Teen mothers - Health and nutrition
Citation
Nabugoomu, J. (2018). Needs and Barriers of Teen Mothers in Rural Eastern Uganda: stakeholders’ perceptions regarding maternal/child nutrition and health. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 2776; doi:10.3390/ijerph15122776