Abstract
BackgroundChild under nutrition is an underlying factor in millions of under-five child deaths and poor cognitive development worldwide. Whilst many studies have examined the levels and factors associated with child under nutrition in different settings, very little has been written on the variation of child under nutrition across seasons. This study explored seasonal food availability and child morbidity as influences of child nutritional status in Malawi.MethodsThe study used the 2004 Malawi Integrated Household Survey data. Graphical analysis of the variation of child under nutrition, child morbidity and food availability across the 12 months of the year was undertaken to display seasonal patterns over the year. Multivariate analysis was used to explore the importance of season after controlling for well-established factors that are known to influence a child’s nutritional status.ResultsA surprising finding is that children were less likely to be stunted and less likely to be underweight in the lean cropping season (September to February) compared to the post-harvest season (March to August). The odds ratio for stunting were 0.80 (0.72, 0.90) and the odds ratio for underweight were 0.77 (0.66, 0.90). The season when child under nutrition levels were high coincided with the period of high child morbidity in line with previous studies. Children that were ill in the two weeks prior to survey were more likely to be underweight compared to children that were not ill 1.18 (1.01, 1.38).ConclusionIn Malawi child nutritional status varies across seasons and follows a seasonal pattern of childhood illness but not that of household food availability.
Highlights
Child under nutrition is an underlying factor in millions of under-five child deaths and poor cognitive development worldwide
The results show that stunting and underweight levels are significantly higher amongst children from households that were interviewed between March and August, those participating in a nutrition intervention, male children, children from households without piped or protected water source, children from households without a permanent or an improved floor and children from households where the head had no qualification compared to their counterparts
Stunting is significantly higher amongst children from households without a toilet facility, households identified as poor, those from the central region compared to their counterparts whilst underweight is higher amongst children that were participating in an under-five clinic and those that were ill compared to their counterparts
Summary
Child under nutrition is an underlying factor in millions of under-five child deaths and poor cognitive development worldwide. Whilst many studies have examined the levels and factors associated with child under nutrition in different settings, very little has been written on the variation of child under nutrition across seasons. This study explored seasonal food availability and child morbidity as influences of child nutritional status in Malawi. Estimates indicate that under nutrition is implicated in 50% of child deaths in developing countries every year and in the long-term contributes to poor cognitive development [1,2,3]. Whilst many studies have studied the levels and factors associated with child under nutrition in different settings in an attempt to identify better strategies to tackle the problem of child under nutrition, very little has been written on the variation of child under nutrition across seasons. It is no surprise that studies have established an association between the seasonal food variation and nutritional status amongst adults whereby seasonal food shortages have been associated with body weight losses of 2 to 6% of total body weight [4,5,6,7]
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