Abstract:
Background:Researches showed that consumption of soft drinks is increasing dramatically over
the last few years and this situation is the same for Ethiopia. Sugar–containing drinks could lead
to unnecessary weight gain, dental caries, and other non-communicable diseases. A report from
the Ethiopian ministry of health in 2018 also indicatedthat this unhealthy lifestyle as a serious
concern. There is no study conducted in Ethiopia showing the knowledge, attitude, and practice
of mothers on soft drink consumption in children, hence this study will provide an insight to
practitioners, researchers, and policy makers.
Objective: To assessthe Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) of mothers on the risk of
carbonated soft drink consumption to child health and associated factors in Yekasub city of
Addis Ababa.
Method: Cross-sectional studywas conducted from May1-July 1, 2020. Four health centers were
randomly selected from the Yeka sub-city and 347 mothers who brought children for
immunization and outpatientto the health center were randomly selected and interviewed.
Interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were collected by
trained data collectors using structured questionnaires inthe facility setting.Data was entered and
analyzed using SPSS v21.The data analysis applied both descriptive statistics and modeling.
Descriptive results are presented by tables and charts. Logistic regression modeling was used for
predictive statistics to determine factors affecting child mother’s soft drink provision to the child
consumption.
Result:From a total of 424 participants, 347 mothers were interviewed. The study result showed
that78% and 82% of mothers had good knowledge and a positive attitude on the risk of
carbonated soft drink consumption to child health, and 60%of the mothers had a good practice
not to usesoft drink to their child. On multivariable logistic regression analyses after adjusting
for other variables,mothers with a good attitude on soft drink provision were 98% less likely to
practice provision of soft drink to their child than mothers with poor nutritional attitude (AOR=
0.02, 95% C.I.: 0.01-0.07). Children with easy access to soft drink were 2.7 times more likely to
practice soft drink consumption (AOR=2.66, 95% C.I.: 1.21-5.82). Moreover, families who
listen/watch to soft drink advertisements were 3.73 times more likely to practice child soft drink
consumption (AOR= 3.73, 95% C.I.: 1.74-7.98).
Conclusion and Recommendation: The study showed that the interviewedmothers had good
knowledge ofsoft drink consumption on the health risk of children. Most of the interviewed
mothers had a good attitude not to use these products for their children and they had less practice
of feeding soft drinks to their children.There should be strong supervision ofsoft drink
advertisements and child consumption. Moreover, it is important to improve the awareness of
mothers on the health risk of carbonated soft drink provision to children.