Causes and Effects of Malnutrition in Children in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of Study
The work aims at dealing with the following objectives;
- To know the causes and effects of malnutrition
- To know what malnutrition is all about
- To know the problems facing malnutrition and their prevention
- To enlighten the people with the consequences of malnutrition
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This section provides detailed literature review on the subject matter from various authors globally and locally. Malnutrition is still a serious public health concern. Where most cases are reported in most lower resource countries.
Malnutrition
WHO defines malnutrition as deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in intake of energy, protein and other nutrients. This is the effect of being unable to meet ones’ nutrient needs continually over a period of time. Child malnutrition has been and is still a major problem in the world. Various studies have been conducted on the problem of malnutrition. In spite of all these efforts, each year, 4.6 million children under-five die due to malnutrition (World Health Organisation “WHO”, 2009).
Trends in child malnutrition
According to UNICEF (2014) report there has been a 37% drop in stunting worldwide since 1990. The Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) 2008, also reported that there has been a steady decrease in the rate of malnutrition in Ghana over the years. However, an evaluation of child malnutrition trends over the years done by UNICEF-WHO- The World Bank (2012), points out that the progress made is insufficient and millions of children still have low chances of survival if the current trends continue. de Onis et al., (2004) had early observed an uneven progress in the trend, with Africa showing very little improvement compared to Eastern and South-Eastern Asia. Therefore, new ways of tackling the malnutrition in Africa need to be
looked into to help eradicate the problem and save millions of innocent lives. Akorede & Abiola (2013) in their recommendation on solving the problem on malnutrition suggested that periodically, nutritional assessments should be conducted to help track the progress being made to solve the malnutrition problem. Thus, there is the need to assess nutritional status of communities.
Nutritional status
This refers to one’s state of health as depicted by the quality of nutrient intake and the body’s ability to utilize them for metabolic needs (Amosu et al., 2011). The nutritional status gives an indication of the health of an individual in terms of what they consume or better still one’s current state of health after the body has made use of the food they take. The evidence of the effect of our dietary intake is visible on the human
Nutritional status of under-fives
In children under-five, nutritional status is a reflection of the child’s overall health (GSS, 2011). It is also an accepted indicator for nutritional wellbeing and health of their community (WFP & CDC, 2005). It is not surprising most studies seek to assess the nutritional status of children under-five.
Assessment of nutritional status
Assessment of one’s nutritional status tries to give an interpretation of what the body lacks, has in right amounts or has in excess. It helps in identification of people with nutritional deficiencies and the type of deficiencies they have. Nutritional status can be determined by either one of the following method or a combination of them. According to Maqbool et al. (2008), every nutritional assessment requires one or more of these for better interpretations since no single method provides an adequate assessment of nutritional status.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Area of Study
Ovia North-East is a Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Okada. It has an area of 2,301 km2 and a population of 153,849 at the 2006 census.
Study Design
A cross sectional study was used, involving children 0-59 months and their care givers. Variables of respondents were obtained over a three-week period and analysis done on the variables to determine its contribution to under five malnutrition.
Study Variables
- The dependent variable was under 5 malnutrition
- Independent variables;
- Socio demographic and socio-economic factors of mother
- Child characteristics (socio demographic factors of child)
- Environmental conditions
- Child caring practices
Study Population:
Children between age 0months-59 months coming with mothers at the child welfare clinic and who actually in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Demographic characteristics
This section provides the demographic characteristics of study participants who are mainly mothers and their children under five years.
Background Characteristics of Mothers
A total of 328 children between the ages of 0- 59 months with their caregivers, which comprised of mothers living in Ovie North-East LGA during the period of data collection were sampled and their data analyzed. The youngest mother was 15 years and the oldest, 44 years. Most of the caregivers were between the ages of 20-30 years. The modal level of education was secondary school education.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
In this study, our focus was to examine the causes and effects of malnutrition in children in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo state. The study specifically was aimed at knowing the causes and effects of malnutrition, know what malnutrition is all about, know the problems facing malnutrition and their prevention, and enlighten the people with the consequences of malnutrition.
The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 328 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are drawn from mothers from Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo state.
Conclusion
The following factors were associated with and contributed to the development of malnutrition among under five children in the study area. These factors are maternal age, hygiene practice of the mother, sanitation factors, source of drinking water, recent medical history of diarrhea or respiratory tract infection.
It was also noticed that higher proportion of malnourished children were in age group 6-20 months. Almost all the children had been fully immunized.
The findings revealed that:
- There is a significant relationship between awareness and nutritional practices among mothers
- There is a significant relationship between the financial status and nutritional practices for the child.
- There is a significant relationship between nutrition education and poor feeding
- There is a significant relationship between starvation, and malnutrition.
- There is a significant relationship between mother’s knowledge of causes and symptoms of nutritional diseases.
Recommendations
- Malnutrition program should be strengthened and expanded by Ministry of Health. Mothers should be taught very nutritious meals to introduce as complementary meals when exclusive breast-feeding is stopped (after 6 months).
- Measures should be put in place to reduce teenage pregnancy in the community by the Ministry of Gender, Women and Social Protection.
- Good source of water by Nigeria Water Company should be made available to all homes.
- Caregivers should be educated on the need to wash their hand with clean water and soap before preparing food, cleaning the child and after toilet Government should make it a policy for all homes to have good toilet facilities.
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