Improving birth weight by increasing the knowledge of both pregnant mothers and their partners. An experience from a Sri Lankan study

Abstract Background The purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of a community based health promotion intervention to increase knowledge about birth weight and its determinants among mothers and their partners. Methods A quasi-experimental study design was used with mixed methods and the setting was pregnant mothers (n = 806) of n = 403 each in two districts. The pregnant mothers and their partners completed interviewer administered questionnaires. Pre and post data was analyzed based on four major knowledge categories using statistical methods. Results Significantly higher gains in knowledge were seen among both mothers and their partners in the intervention group compared to the comparison group. Among participants with low pre-assessment knowledge scores too, the intervention group improved more than the comparison group {mothers (p = 0.002) and partners (p = 0.007)}. Conclusions The knowledge of the mothers as well as the partners was improved significantly. Importantly, mothers with less advantages have also benefitted. Involving partners incorporating health promotion approaches was successful.