COMMUNITY-BASED ASSESSMENT OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF 24 TO 59 MONTHS CHILDREN IN SAGNARIGU DISTRICT

Abstract

Child malnutrition continues to be a major public health concern in Ghana. Nutritional status is primarily measured by a child's growth in height and weight and is directly influenced by food intake and the occurrence of infections. The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional status of preschool children in the Sagnarigu district. A cross sectional analytical study was conducted in 28 communities of the Sagnarigu District involving 280 preschool children and their mothers/caregivers. Cluster sampling procedure was used in the selection of the communities, each community represented a cluster whiles systematic sampling was used in selecting the households of the respondents. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the data collection. Breastfeeding practices were assessed using a questionnaire whilst nutritional status was assessed using anthropometric measurements of the children (weight, height and Mid-upper arm circumference). Dietary diversity scores (DDS) were also calculated for the children. Results showed that 72.8% of the mothers initiated breastfeeding within the first hour after delivery. Prelacteal feeding was practiced by 29.6% of the mothers whilst 63.9% fed their children with the first yellowish milk (colostrum) after delivery. The lowest consumed food group was eggs with a consumption score of 9.3%. The incidence of diarrhoea in the two weeks prior to the study was 27.9% whilst prevalence of fever was 16.8%. An Analysis of Variance (ANOV A) showed that children of younger mothers/caregivers had the least DDS because teenage mothers had a DDS of 5.88±1.34 whilst those within 40-49 years had the highest DDS of 7.98 ± 1.50. As age of mother increased, the DDS also increased (P<0.003, X2= 8.24). The factors that influenced dietary diversity of the households were, wealth index or Socio Economic Status (AOR = 0.8, CI: 0.7 to 0.9), educational level of mothers/caregivers (AOR = 14.08, CI: 12.42 - 14.09). The level of child underweight in the study was 11.1 %, wasting 5.0% and stunting 12.3%. The study found that 11.1 % of children from households with high wealth index were underweight, whilst 25.7% of children from households with low wealth index were underweight. The results also showed that 12% of the children from households with high index were stunted as compared to the 20.0% of stunted children from households with low wealth index. Wasting was very low (5.0%) among children from households with high wealth index as compared to 20.0% of wasted children from households with lower wealth index. It is recommended that more education should be done by the Ghana Health Service to increase the knowledge of mother/ caregivers on dietary diversity. Also good Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices, the use of locally produced foods and empowering households to increase their household income which will improve their dietary diversity.