Journal Article

Severe acute malnutrition and its associated factors among children under-five years: a facility-based cross-sectional study

Aryal, Binod Kumar, Gupta, Ankush Kumar, Ghimire, Umesh, Sapkota, Suman

2020

Overview

Background Despite consistent efforts to enhance child nutrition, poor nutritional status of children continues to be a major public health problem in Nepal. This study identified the predictors of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) among children aged 6 to 59 months in the two districts of Nepal. Methods We used data from a cross-sectional study conducted among 6 to 59 months children admitted to the Outpatient Therapeutic Care Centers (OTCC). The nutritional status of children was assessed using mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurement. To determine which variables predict the occurrence of SAM, adjusted odds ratio was computed using multivariate logistic regression and p -value < 0.05 was considered as significant. Results Out of 398 children, 5.8% were severely malnourished and the higher percentage of female children were malnourished. Multivariate analysis showed that severe acute malnutrition was significantly associated with family size (five or more members) (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR]: 3.96; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.23–12.71). Children from severely food insecure households (AOR: 4.04; 95% CI: 1.88–10.53) were four times more likely to be severely malnourished. Higher odds of SAM were found among younger age-group (AOR: 12.10; 95% CI: 2.06–71.09) children (0–12 vs. 24–59 months). Conclusions The findings of this study indicated that household size, household food access, and the child’s age were the major predictors of severe acute malnutrition. Engaging poor families in kitchen gardening to ensure household food access and nutritious diet to the children, along with health education and promotion to the mothers of young children are therefore recommended to reduce child undernutrition.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Age groups / Analysis / Child / Child nutrition / Child Nutrition Disorders / Child, Preschool / Children / Childrens health / Cross-Sectional Studies / Developing countries / diet / Family / Female / Floods / Food security / Food supply / Gender differences / Health aspects / Households / Humans / Infant / Internal Medicine / LDCs / Malnutrition / Malnutrition - diagnosis / Malnutrition - epidemiology / Malnutrition - etiology / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Mid-upper arm circumference / Nepal / Nepal - epidemiology / Nutrition / Nutritional status / Pediatrics / physical health and endocrinology / Preschool children / Research Article / Severe acute malnutrition / Severe Acute Malnutrition - diagnosis / Severe Acute Malnutrition - epidemiology / Socioeconomic factors / Under-five children