Assessment of nutritional status of under 5-year-old children in Banadir Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia

Abstract

Background: Nutritional status of children is a proxy indicator for assessing the entire population health status and one of the major predictors of child survival. Despite the various efforts, malnutrition among children is remaining as a major public health problem in Somalia. The study objective was to assess the nutritional status of under 5-year-old children in Banadir Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 under-five children. Sociodemographic characteristic, usual dietary intake and assess adequacy, breastfeeding and complementary feeding pattern of the mothers, and anthropometric index of the children were collected by using semi-structured questionnaire. Results: Age categorized into 0–1 years old were 52.7%, 32.0% were 1–2 years old, 8.7% were 3–4 years old, and 6.7% were 4–5 years old. With mean and standard deviation of 17.44 ± 13.096, the age was the most critical variable because it was one of the scales of the Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC) measurements and target objective of the study. MAC test showed that 49.3% of the children were severe, 16.0% of the children were mild malnourished, and 34.7% of the children were well-nourished children. Based on height-for-age chronic malnutrition, 16.0% of the respondents were severe, 14.7% of the respondents were moderate, 24.0% of the respondents were mild, and 45.3% of the respondents were normal. According to the weight-for-height acute malnutrition, 30.7% of the respondents were severe, 19.3% of the respondents were moderate, 10.7% of the respondents were mild, and 39.3% of the respondents were normal. Conclusion: The findings showed that the nutritional status of under-five children was quite poor. Also from the results, it is evident that malnutrition is still a major public health problem among young children due to the poor socioeconomic status (poverty and poor educational background) of their parents, and thus, there is a need for better nutrition of the Somali child.