International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | August 2023 | Vol 10 | Issue 8 Page 2878 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Bhatt DP et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2023 Aug;10(8):2878-2883 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article A compliance study of baal vita supplement to children in Sindhupalchowk District, Nepal Deependra Prasad Bhatt 1 , Amrit Bist 2 *, Krishna Prasad Lamsal 3 , Prakash Chandra Joshi 4 INTRODUCTION Good nutrition is the solid rock of child survival, health and well development. Well-nourished children are enhanced able to grow and learn, to participate in and contribute to their communities. But, until now millions of children worldwide suffering from malnutrition, reality is blunt. All the developing countries including Nepal are facing the problem of high infant and child mortality, making utmost effort to decline the infant and child mortality rate. The under-five mortality rate of Nepal is 39, infant mortality rate is 32 and the neonatal mortality rate is 21 per thousand live births (NDHS, 2016). Malnutrition among young children is becoming a major public health concern in low-income countries like Nepal where under nutrition remains one of the primary causes of ill health. In Nepal, the nutritional status of mothers and children under five is very poor. Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS 2016) shows that young children are suffering from high rates of chronic malnutrition; 37% of children less than 5 years of age were stunted (height-for-age <-2 ABSTRACT Background: Micronutrient deficiencies are widespread and have serious health implications, particularly for women and children globally. In Nepal, the government is tackling this issue by providing MNP/Baal Vita supplements to children aged 6-23 months, alongside promoting community-based infant and young child feeding (IYCF). This strategy aims to combat anaemia and micronutrient deficiencies in children under 2 years old. The government's protocol indicates that each child in this age group should consume a total of 180 sachets, 80% consumption of total sachets was taken reference for compliance in this study. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study using a structured questionnaire was carried out among 198 participants. Simple random sampling was used for selecting a sample. Excel and SPSS were being used for data coding, decoding, and statistical analysis. Results: Assessment of knowledge revealed that the majority (60.1%) of the participants had adequate knowledge regarding Baal Vita. The findings showed 51% of the respondents had Baal Vita compliance, as they had consumed at least 80% of the total sachets as per protocol. Sex of children and occupation of mothers are not associated with the compliance of Baal Vita, but education of mothers and ethnic groups are associated with its compliance. Conclusions: The level of knowledge and compliance rate of Baal Vita in Sindhupalchowk district were not satisfactory. It is suggested that improving knowledge level with counselling, accessibility, availability, and change the perception towards the taste of powder is essential to improving compliance with Baal Vita. Keywords: Baal vita, Children, Compliance, Knowledge, MNP, Supplement 1 Nepali Technical Assistance Group, Kathmandu, Nepal 2 School of Public Health, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Lalitpur, Nepal 3 Nutritionist, Nepali Technical Assistance Group, Kathmandu, Nepal 4 James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh Received: 24 May 2023 Revised: 04 July 2023 Accepted: 05 July 2023 *Correspondence: Amrit Bist, E-mail: amritbist122@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20232382