Effect of Nutritional Intervention Program for Mothers on Health Parameters of Infant with Phenylketonuria

Abstract

Background : Phenylketonuria is a rare inborn inherited disorder of metabolism disease due to an autosomal recessive trait. The prevalence in Egypt is one case per 7,500. When PKU untreated or delayed treatment, can lead to severe mental retardation, seizures and tremors, impaired growth and development. The present study was aimed to evaluate the effect of implementing nutritional intervention program for mothers on health parameters of their infants with phenylketonuria. Research design : A quasi-experimental research design was used. Setting : The study was conducted at pediatric outpatient clinic inherited and metabolic diseases of Tanta University Hospital. Subjects: A convenience sampling of 50 mothers having infants with PKU who attended the previously mentioned setting. Two tools were used to collect the required data: Constructed interview questionnaire sheet : to assess mothers’ knowledge towards their infants suffering from Phenylketonuria. It consisted of three parts : Socio-demographic characteristics of mothers, infants, and mothers’ knowledge regarding phenylketonuria, mothers’ practices sheet : to assess mothers' practices regarding to infants’ feeding. Observational chick list to assess outcomes of infants. Result : revealed that there were highly statistically significant differences between the pre-test and post-test of nutritional intervention program implementation for infants with Phenylketonuria. Conclusion: the present study was revealed that a significant improvement of mothers’ knowledge and practice regarding phenylketonuria immediate and after one-month of program implementation, nutritional intervention program was effective on their infants’ development and health parameters as increase weight . Recommendations : In-service training program should be conducted periodically and regularly in health care services for mothers with infants had phenylketonuria