[Health education for mothers in the catchment area of the El Llano ambulatory center, Merida, Venezuela].

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether it is possible to achieve substantial changes in mother's knowledge and attitude, with respect to breast feeding, to feeding during the first year of life, to immunisation and other aspects that have to do with the normal growth and overall development of the child. DESIGN: Controlled, non-random, forward-looking study. SETTING: Primary Health Care. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Study group of 20 mothers, and control group of 17 mothers. INTERVENTIONS: Monthly meetings were held with the study group for 7 months, in which they were given leaflets and talks on health education, with the respective questionnaires before and after the talks. The same questionnaires were given to the control group, when their children were a year old. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: All the children of the mothers in the study group were having their children at the right time, compared with 70.6% of those in the control group, a statistically very significant result (chi 2 = 6.8 p < 0.01). The study group gave correct answers 85% out of total, compared with the control group's 37.5%, which is statistically significant (chi 2 = 8.6 p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: There was a significant change of attitude with regard to immunisation and feeding in the first year of life and a change in knowledge regarding breast feeding, immunisation and other aspects, in the study group as compared to the control group.