Abstract
Underweight is a key indicator of malnutrition in children and results in long term effects such as abnormalities in physical and mental health, behavioural problems, and low educational achievement. Using the conceptual framework for child malnutrition by the United Nations Children's Fund, we examined the predictors of underweight in children under five years in Ghana. This cross-sectional study made use of data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. A total of 2720 children were included in the analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics comprising frequency, percentage, chi-square, and binary logistic regression were used in analysing the data. The prevalence of underweight was 11%. Age, wealth status, mother's education, region, ethnicity, household toilet facility, the source of drinking water, the incidence of diarrhoea, and subscription to health insurance significantly predicted underweight in the children. The risk of being underweight was higher in females than males (OR=1.04, 95% CI=0.81-1.34). This was, however, not statistically significant. The probability of being underweight also declined significantly with mother's level of education. Our findings underscore the need for the Ghana Health Service and other health sector stakeholders to apportion interventions with a focus on improving complementary feeding, poverty alleviation, and health status of children. No funding was received for the study.
Highlights
Children under five years of age remain the most vulnerable group to malnutrition and micronutrients deficiency.[1]
Underweight is a key indicator of malnutrition in children and results in long term effects such as abnormalities in physical and mental health, behavioural problems, and low educational achievement.[3,4]
In addition to the variables examined by Amugsi et al.[10], we examined the influence of mother’s age, ethnicity, source of drinking water, incidence of diarrhoea, toilet facility, and subscription to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on the incidence of underweight in children at both bivariate and multivariate levels
Summary
Children under five years of age remain the most vulnerable group to malnutrition and micronutrients deficiency.[1]. Children whose weight for age measures are below minus two standard deviations (-2SD) from the median of the reference population are considered underweight while those with measures below minus three standard deviations (-3SD) are severely underweight.[4] The international community has strengthened its commitment to reducing childhood underweight by implementing interventions including exclusive breastfeeding and nutritionally adequate diets for children less than five years.[5] As a result of such interventions, the global prevalence of underweight in children declined from 25% in 1990 to 14% in 2015 This decline was, not enough to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target set to halve underweight by 2015.3 Ghana, on the other hand, has been able to reduce the prevalence of underweight in children under five from 23% in 1993 to the current prevalence of 11%.4
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