Prevalence Of Childhood Malnutrition And Associated Factors Among Children Aged 6-59 Months In Busia District.

Abstract

Child malnutrition remains a major public health problem in developing countries and major contributor to global disease burden. Hunger and malnutrition among children in developing countries continue to impair health, quality of life, and survival. Malnutrition due to macro and micronutrients deficiencies has remained a major public health problem in Kenya, especially among children below five years and women of reproductive age (KDHS 2008 2009). Malnutrition is often a part of a vicious cycle of poverty, illiteracy and infections. Childhood malnutrition is as a result of several factors that are often related to inadequate dietary intake, poor food quality and recurrent infectious diseases like diarrhea, and lower respiratory tract infections. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of childhood malnutrition and its associated factors among children age 6-59 months in Busia district. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross sectional community based survey conducted in the 6 divisions of Busia District from 1st December to 31st December 2015. Multistage random sampling was used to select the villages, and households. The study also incorporated use of Global Positioning System (GPS) to capture the locations of the study respondents at the house hold level. Garmin eTrex 10, a hand-held GPS gadget was used. The spatial analysis carried out showed that 500 points were mapped in total which is an equivalent of the number of households. Data was collected from 493 children aged 6-59 months using pretested structured questionnaire and measurement of weight, height and MUAC was done. Stepwise logistic regression was used to relate underlying factors to the odds of malnutrition indices.Data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.0 and EPI-Info software program version 7 was used to determine anthropometric indices: Height for age, Weight for Height and Weight for age. Results: The various forms of malnutrition were considered in a parallel fashion such that the overall malnutrition, wasting and stunting were assessed out of 100 independently of each other. The overall prevalence of malnutrition was 14.8 %( 95% CI 11.8 – 18.3) with Underweight at 15.5%, while wasting and stunting were 14.8% and 13.3% respectively. The prevalence of underweight was significantly associated with number of under-fives in the households. The risk of underweight was two times higher in a child from a household which had more than 2 under-fives compared to a child from a household with less than two under-fives (OR = 2.17, 95% CI 1.12-4.2, p = 0.02). Higher birth order was also significantly associated with prevalence of underweight with the risk of underweight being 1.9 times greater in children of third or higher birth order compared to first borne children (OR = 1.9, 95% CI 1.02-3.57, p = 0.045). There were no significant associations between child‟s age, sex (p = 0.054), age of introduction of solid foods (p = 0.232), or caretaker feeding the child and the prevalence of underweight. Conclusion: High prevalence rate of malnutrition (wasting, stunting and underweight) among the under five children were observed, with variations among the divisions, indicating that the nutrition situation in study area needs to be addressed. The prevalence of malnutrition was significantly associated with number of under-fives in the households (p=0.02) and the child's birth order (p=0.045).