Assessing parents’ awareness about children’s 'first thousand days of life': a descriptive and analytical study

Abstract Background Many adulthood illnesses are rooted in childhood, especially in the “first thousand days of life”. Despite parents’ role in children’s development, no study has examined parental awareness concerning this period. This study aimed to examine the awareness of parents concerning the “first thousand days of life” and the relationship between parents’ demographics and their awareness. Methods This study was conducted on 135 parents in Kerman, Iran, using a valid and reliable questionnaire developed by researchers based on the opinion of experts and relevant references. The relationship between participants’ demographics and their awareness was examined by multiple regression. The relationship between homogeneity of couples’ education degree and awareness was analyzed using ANOVA. Chi-square was used to examine the relationship between information sources and parents’ familiarity and to compare parents’ preferred sources. Results The average parental awareness was 41.96 ± 11.90. Eighty-three percent of the parents have not heard about the “first thousand days of life”. The source of information for 57% of the parents was friends and relatives (p