Nutritional Status of Children Under Five Years and Associated Risk Factors in Banadir Hospital Mogadishu, Somalia

Abstract

Young children and newborns are especially more susceptible to malnutrition because of their high dietary demands for growth and development. Many child survival programs by the Somalia Government, bilateral agencies and non-governmental are working with communities to alleviate child malnutrition. However, the prevalence of child malnutrition continues to be high. This study was carried out to determine the nutritional status of children under the age of five years and associated risk factors at Banadir hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia. The study was conducted at Banadir hospital which is located in Mogadishu, Somalia between January and February 2021. 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, 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 age of 6-59 months. Anthropometry data from the survey was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Emergency Nutrition Assessment (ENA) software’s. Analysis involved interpreting statistical software outputs to draw objective oriented conclusions. Socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics, morbidity, and immunization characteristics were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies. Chi-square tests were used to define the associations between variables. while the nutritional status was analyzed with the Emergency Nutrition Assessment (ENA) for SMART (version 2012. ANOVA was used to analyze the physical growth of the children. 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. The demographic characteristics of the mothers in the study (age, level of education, monthly income and health consultation seeking behaviors) played a role in their caregiving practices and overall nutritional status of the children under the age of 5 years. Most of the households have access to tap water. Some households did not treat their drinking water. All households have a toilet facility. The government through the health ministry and health stakeholders need to increase awareness creation among not only mothers but also all primary caregivers (mothers and fathers) on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, feeding the baby with colostrum and early first feeding, in prove the diet quality of the children. Women need to be highly encouraged and enticed to deliver their babies at health facilities, which will enable health workers give mothers/caregivers’ nutrition education. The municipality or the government of Somalia should ensure that all the accompaniments for hand washing which include running water and soap so as to make handwashing an effective practice are provided.