Abstract
Malnutrition, poor child feeding practices and low dietary diversity are common in low income households, where food insecurity is prevalent. Therefore, this study was designed to assess and compare nutritional status of children (aged 2-5 years) in food secure and insecure households of Kuyu woreda. A community based comparative, cross sectional study was conducted in March, 2016. Multi stages sampling methods were employed to select 612 children, out of which 304 children were from food secure and 308 from insecure households. Dietary diversity score was assessed using a 24 hrs recall method. Anthropometric measurements of children were taken and nutritional status was generated using WHO Anthro v.3.2.2. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0 was used to perform descriptive statistics, independent samples T test and chi-square test analyses. P value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. The prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting was 48.7%, 36.7% and 20.5% respectively for children in food insecure households. While the prevalence of stunting was 43%, underweight 30.9% and wasting 16.8% for children in food secure households. Daily meal frequency; having breakfast, midmorning, afternoon and bedtime snack among children in food secure households were significantly higher than food insecure households (p<0.05). In addition, children restriction and pressure during meal were significantly (p<0.05) higher in food insecure households compared to their counterparts. Moreover, this study found that food secure and insecure households were significantly different in children's dietary diversity scores (x2=13.1, p<0.001), child feeding practices (x2=11.2, p= 0.001), consumption of dairy products (x2=15.44, p<0.001) and vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables (x2=8.37, p=0.004). Most importantly, the study revealed that nutritional statuses of children from food secure households were significantly better compared to those from their counterparts. Therefore, Productivity Safety Net Program with all responsible bodies should be intensified to improve the nutritional status, child feeding practices and dietary diversity scores of children in the study area. Keywords : under nutrition, children aged 2-5 years, feeding practices, food insecurity DOI : 10.7176/ALST/81-02 Publication date: August 31st 2020
Highlights
Malnutrition in children remains one of the most important public health and developmental problems in the developing world, mainly affecting the poor and under privileged (Poel et al, 2008)
This study included a total of 612 households of which 304 were food secure and 308 were food insecure households with an overall response rate of 99%
Six households were excluded from the study due to mothers were not found at home during the survey
Summary
Malnutrition in children remains one of the most important public health and developmental problems in the developing world, mainly affecting the poor and under privileged (Poel et al, 2008). In 2011, nearly one in four children under-five years of age (165 million or 26% were stunted, 101 million or 16% underweight and 52 million children under five years were moderately or severely wasted (UNICEF, 2013). Reducing malnutrition among children under the age of five remains a huge challenge in developing countries of the world. Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia are home to three fourths of the world's stunted children. In Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), 40% of children under five years old were stunted; in South Asia, 39% were stunted (UNICEF, 2013). In 2012, it reported that the prevalence of underweight (33%) and wasting (16%) is highest in South Asia followed by SSA, which is 21% and 9%, respectively
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