ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Malnutrition is the single biggest contributor to under-five mortality due to greater susceptibility to infections and slow recovery from illness. Every year, an estimated 2.5 million under-five children in Nigeria suffer from severe acute malnutrition and this makes them vulnerable and nine times more likely to die from diarrhea, acute respiratory tract infection and fever. This interaction between malnutrition and infection creates a potentially lethal cycle of worsening illness and deteriorating nutritional status.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between the nutritional status and morbidity pattern of under-five children in Benin-City, Edo State Nigeria.
METHODS: This was a community-based cross-sectional study carried out among 771 mother-child pairs that were selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. A structured, pre-tested, interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on demographic and socio-economic characteristics,dietary pattern, morbidity pattern and child health practices while nutritional status was assessed using anthropometric methods. Focus group discussions guide was used to collect data on maternal knowledge, attitude and practices on child health and infant and young child feeding. Data was analyzed using Software Statistical Package for Scientific Solutions (SPSS) version 20.0 manufactured by IBM incorporated and the level of statistical significance was set at a p< 0.05.
RESULTS: A total of 771 mother-child pair participated in this study. The mean age of the participants was 27.3 ±15.9 months.The results showed that 215 (27.9%) mothershad introduced complementary foods to their children at the appropriate time. The most consumed food were foods made from grains, roots and tubers; 26.9% among breastfeeding children and 73.1% among non-breastfeeding children. Only 113 (14.7%) of children had an adequately diverse diet, in which they had been given foods from at least five food groups, and 82 (10.6%) had been fed the minimum number of times appropriate for their age. Overall,only a little above one-third, (33.6%) of the children were fed according to the appropriate complementary feeding practice in the 24 hours preceding the interview. Factors associated with child feeding index were mothers’ level of education (p = 0.001), number of under-fives’ in the household (p = 0.035), average monthly household income (p = 0.003),age of under-five (p = 0.001) and wealth quintile (p = 0.016). Almost half of the children were stunted (42.8%), 10.7% were overweight, 10.1% were underweight and 4.9% were wasted. Factors associated with the nutritional status were wealth quintile, average monthly household income, child age, number of under-five in household, birth order, child feeding index and mothers skill level. History of illness in thetwo weeks preceding the survey was 34.2%; fever (15.4%), ARI (14.5%) and diarrhea (5.1%).Factors associated with history of illness were mother and father’s level of education, mother’s age, child’s age, sex of under-five, birth order and average monthly household income.There was an association between the classification of under-nutrition using the MUAC (p < 0.0001) and Weight for Age (p = 0.027) and the morbidity status of under-fives’. MUAC and Weight for age are indicators for wasting.
CONCLUSION: There was a strong association between the nutritional status and morbidity pattern of under-fives in this study. This association was found between wasting and morbidity status. Wasting is a major health problem and owing to its associated risks for morbidity requires urgent attention.
KEYWORDS: Malnutrition, Morbidity pattern, Under-fives, Infant feeding.
