Abstract
BackgroundPoor nutritional status of mothers has a direct and indirect consequence on their own health and that of their children. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between nutritional status of mothers and their children and the risk factors for under-nutrition among mothers and children in rural and urban communities of Lagos State, Nigeria.MethodsThis was a cross sectional survey conducted using the multistage random sampling technique. A total of 300 mother-child pairs were studied, consisting of 150 each from rural and urban communities. Under-nutrition in mothers and children was determined using standard criteria.ResultsThe prevalence of under-nutrition among mothers was significantly higher in rural than urban communities (10.7% vs. 2.7%, p = 0.014). The prevalences of underweight and stunted children were also significantly higher in rural than urban communities (19.4% vs. 9.3%, p < 0.001) and (43.3% vs. 12.6%, p < 0.001) respectively. In rural communities, the risk of stunted mothers having children with stunting was about 7 times higher than those who were not (OR 6.7, 95% CI = 1.4-32.0, p = 0.007). In urban communities, undernourished mothers have about 11 and 12 times risk of having children with underweight and wasting respectively (OR 11.2, 95% CI = 1.4-86.5, p = 0.005) and (OR 12.3, 95% CI = 1.6-95.7, p = 0.003) respectively. The identified risk factors for maternal and child under nutrition differs across rural and urban communities.ConclusionsThe prevalence of maternal and child under-nutrition is high in both communities although higher in rural communities. Efforts at reducing the vicious cycle of under-nutrition among mothers and children should concentrate on addressing risk factors specific for each community.
Highlights
Poor nutritional status of mothers has a direct and indirect consequence on their own health and that of their children
The United Nations provided eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which serve as a framework for the entire international community to work together to reduce child morbidity and mortality [6]
The educational level of mothers was significantly better in urban as opposed to rural areas (p < 0.001) and a significant proportion of the mothers in rural compared with urban communities (90.0% vs. 60.4%, p < 0.001) were from the lower social class
Summary
Poor nutritional status of mothers has a direct and indirect consequence on their own health and that of their children. The United Nations provided eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which serve as a framework for the entire international community to work together to reduce child morbidity and mortality [6]. These goals were adopted by all world leaders in 2000 and are set to be achieved by 2015. Mid-way to the end of the MDG’s implementation period, there remain wide gaps between targets and actual achievement in the rural communities It is a well-known fact that, attainment of many of these MDG’s requires good nutrition status for children and adolescent girls
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