Nutritional Status and Characteristics Associated with Undernourishment for Children Under Five Years

Abstract

A cross sectional study design was utilized to assess the nutrition status of children under five years and its association with demographic and socio-economic characteristics, food security, water availability, hygiene and sanitation. Caregivers who were present in the hospital provided answers to research interviewers on Open data kit (ODK). The targeted 236 respondents randomly sampled were recruited into the study. The respondents were mothers/caregivers of children between the ages of 6-59 months. Anthropometry data from the survey was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Emergency.

Half of the respondents (52%) were females while men accounted for 48% of the responses with an average age of 27 years. Majority of the respondents (22%) had completed secondary school education with those who did not attend school accounting for the least percentage of 2.1%. The study established that self-employment was the main source of income for households with a prevalence of 34.1%. Salaried employment came second with 30.1% while farming was the least income generating activity with 3.2%. The average household size reported was six with the highest number being 12. The minimum number of occupants in a single household to be recorded was two. Majority of the study population depended on tap water (95.8%), while only a few households used rain water (0.4%). To purify water for consumption, 28% of the residents used chemicals to treat water, 7.6% used traditional herbs to make drinking water safe for consumption. About 11.9% boiled water while the remaining 5.1% attain safety of the drinking water through sieving and filtering. A substantial percentage (70%) of the households in Banadir used flash toilets. Ventilated improved latrines was utilized by 21% of the residents while 9% used traditional pit latrines as their toilet facility.

The percentage of children aged 6-59 months with wasting were 13.3%, moderately wasted (9.7%) and 3.6 % were severely wasted. The prevalence of stunting in children was 30.8%. More than three-quarters (69.2%) of the children aged 6-59 months were normal while 13.8% were moderately and 4.6% were severely stunted. About 9.0% of children aged. 6-59 months old were underweight