Socio-Economic Aspects Influencing Food Consumption Patterns Among Children under Age of Five in Rural Area of Sudan

Abstract

A secondary analysis of data for 150 children under the age of five was carried out in three villages of El Fau rural area of Gadarif state. The community mainly consists of farmers of a semi nomadic nature who own different sizes of herds and agricultural lands; they are the farmers of the Arabic pedigree. The rest of the community is workers from western Sudan, who were brought from their original areas to enhance the nomadic settlement strategy of the Sudanese government in the mid seventies. These worker groups comprise of different tribes namely Tama, Hawsa, Birgid, Masalet and Folany. Farming is the major activity practiced almost by all the community members and the government controls the farming system. The study was carried out to investigate some of the social and economic factors, which have a direct and indirect effect on feeding patterns and nutritional status of children under age of five. Mothers were interviewed with a semistructured questionnaire, about the social norms affecting both mother and child’s nutritional and health status, in addition to the feeding habits of the children (including breastfeeding and weaning practices). In addition, information was collected about the socio-economic status of the family. The income of the family was assessed. The results revealed low parental education (76.7% of the mothers and 54.0% of the fathers are illiterate), socioeconomic-demographic factors and poor nutrition of knowledge of mothers as well as and feeding practices led to the prevalence of nutritional aneamia (65.3% of the children with haemoglobin concentration of 50% or below) in addition to the prevalence of wasting, where 6% of the children are moderately malnourished and 3.3% of them are severely malnourished. It is recommended that an improvement in societal infrastructure, better maternal education and nutrition are needed to maintain the children’s nutritional status in several rural areas of Sudan.