Assessing The Nutritional Status of Children Under Five Years in A Fishing Community in Ekumfi District of The Central region of Ghana

ABSTRACT 

Malnutrition is a major problem in the world especially in developing countries. It is responsible for over a million direct and indirect causes of death worldwide especially in under-fives. In spite of the abundance of protein in fishing communities, they are not spared of this problem. One successful way of tackling this problem is assessment of nutritional status of populations and coming up with appropriate interventions. The study sought to assess the proportion of children under-five who were malnourished and to identify some of the major factors associated with malnutrition there. A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2015 to assess the nutritional status of children aged six to fifty-nine (6-59) months in Ekumfi Narkwa and identify factors leading to malnutrition in the community. A total of two hundred and fifty (250) children and their caregivers were involved. A pre-tested, structured, interviewer administered questionnaire consisting of mothers’ childcare practices, child and socio-demographic factors, dietary, clinical assessment and anthropometric measurement was used to gather data. Clinical assessment was done by physical examination of the child. Data was entered with Microsoft Excel 2010. WHO Anthro software version 3.2.2 was used in determining the z-scores and STATA software version 12 was used to perform univariate, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. The rate of malnutrition was 27.6% (under-nutrition 26.4%, over-nutrition 1.2%). The rate of stunting, wasting and underweight were seventeen point six percent (17.6%), four point four percent (4.4%) and twelve percent (12%) respectively. Neither consumption of fish nor any other factor from the study was found to be significantly associated with the nutritional status however stunting was associated with the age group of the caregiver. Less than one-third (23.6%) of the children were fed less than four food groups a day. More than half the children (66.8%) showed at least one clinical sign of nutrient deficiency. These findings suggest that education on infant and young child care and feeding practices need to be re-structured to suit the population. Also more efforts such as periodic assessments need to be put in help reduce the prevalence of malnutrition.