Health communication medium and nutrition knowledge to reduce stunting among residents of people's housing project in kuala lumpur, malaysia: a preliminary finding

Stunting is a subtype of undernutrition that often occurs in children under five years of age that can cause cognitive, physical, and metabolic developmental abnormalities, leading to poor intellectual ability and school achievement. Dietary diversity, which includes plant source foods, such as vegetables, fruits and staples, as well as animal source foods, and breast milk for infants, is vital for growth, development, and good health. This study attempts to investigate the health and nutrition knowledge and identify communication medium suitable for sharing health information among urban poor residents living in People's Housing Project flats in Kuala Lumpur. This study is a cross-sectional study, and respondents were selected by convenience sampling, consisting of heads of household (n=20), young married couples (n=3) and adolescents (n=19). They completed a self-administrated questionnaire, which assessed their preferred communication medium, socio-demography, maternal knowledge of stunting and healthy eating practices. The heads of household reported lower educational level and monthly household incomes (RM3500). WhatsApp and Facebook were the most favored communication media among all respondents. Most young married couples have heard of stunting (67%) and the first 1000 days of life concept (67%), while 65% of heads of household have heard of stunting. Heads of household reported that their baby was breastfed for 24 months (80%), while complementary feeding was introduced at six months of age (90%). A higher percentage of heads of household like to eat vegetables (70%) and drink fruit juice (80%) compared to adolescents. Both heads of household and adolescent respondents like to drink water and milk. In contrast, adolescents prefer to consume cereal with milk for breakfast (77%) compared to heads of household. Low socio-economic status and poor nutritional and health knowledge among families are possibly associated with increased stunting among urban poor living in low-cost flats in Kuala Lumpur. These findings have important implications for understanding how to communicate health and nutrition information to the residents of low-cost flats could support developing education modules and nutrition intervention frameworks to reduce stunting. The limitations of our study include that no dietary intake assessments were included, which limits the capacity to generalize valid conclusions between nutrition knowledge and dietary intake.