Childhood Malnutrition and Its Determinants among Under‐Five Children in <scp>G</scp>hana

Aheto, Justice Moses K.; Keegan, Thomas; Taylor, Benjamin M.; Diggle, Peter J.

doi:10.1111/ppe.12222

Cited by 99 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Also on average, children whose mothers had higher and secondary education were 14% and 7% respectively less likely to suffer from anaemia as compared to children with uneducated mothers. This is in line with the result of Aheto et al (2015) who revealed increasing maternal years of education to be linked with decreased risk of malnutrition, Fosu-Brefo and Arthur (2015) who revealed that mother's education (tertiary level) had positive influence on child health (height-for-age Z-score), Joshi et al (2011) who found a high significant linkage between child nutrition and maternal literacy in Nepal and Borbor et al (2014) who revealed children with lower maternal education (uneducated and primary education), to be more probable to get anaemia. Furthermore, children whose mothers had health insurance were revealed to be 4% less likely to suffer from anaemia relative to those with uninsured mothers.…”

Section: Regression Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

Socio-economic factors and child health status in Ghana

Immurana

Urmi

2017

IJH

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Ghana's under-five mortality rate far exceeds the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.2 Target of 25 deaths per thousand live births by 2030. Therefore to improve upon the situation, it is imperative that the factors which determine the health status of children are investigated. This study therefore used data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey to investigate the socio-economic determinants of child health status in Ghana by employing the binary probit model. The study revealed that, Ewe, Grusi, Muslim and Christian children, children from urban areas, Greater Accra, Northern, Ashanti, Upper east, Eastern and Central regions, were more probable to contract cough. Also children with uneducated mothers, those whose mothers had uneducated partners as well as those whose mothers had no health insurance were revealed to be more likely to be anaemic. Further, male children and children from non-wealthy households were revealed to be more likely to have suffered diarrhoea, fever and anaemia. Also children with employed mothers and those with mothers with big distance challenges to seek care were found to be more likely to have fever. These findings, point out the essence of socio-economic factors to child health outcomes and hence the need to be given attention in child health survival interventions in Ghana.

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Section: Regression Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

Socio-economic factors and child health status in Ghana

Immurana

Urmi

2017

IJH

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“…Taken together, these results suggest that of the factors measured, parental anthropometry and birth or gestational factors are most important in determining both linear growth faltering and wasting in Ifanadiana. These results are consistent with international literature showing that demographic factors, particularly child age, maternal weight, and birth size are important determinants of both stunting and wasting [13,14,17,19,21]. Paternal nutritional status is both less studied and less strongly predictive of malnutrition in international literature [17]; its importance in determining stunting may be a unique feature of our study, which included a large set of matched fathers, or of this population.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Diarrheal illness has been classically associated with malnutrition in general [12], but in a recent systematic review, this was true more frequently for wasting than for stunting [13]. The association of diarrheal disease with wasting is supported by cross-sectional evidence from Ghana, an association exacerbated by lack of toileting facilities [14]. In another study, community-level sanitation access protected from stunting regardless of household-level sanitation access [15], however poor sanitation at the household level also predicted stunting, supporting the importance of diarrheal illness and poor sanitation in malnutrition [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Maternal and paternal education have been associated with lower odds of malnutrition [13,19]; in one study in Indonesia, health-promoting parental behaviors such as vaccination and supplementation appeared to mediate this relationship [20], and in one study in Tanzania, maternal farming work appeared to worsen child nutritional status [18]. However across international literature, the strongest and most consistent risk factors for malnutrition are demographic: male sex [13,17,21], increasing child age [13,14,21], smaller birth size [13,14,19], and poor maternal nutritional status [13,14,17,19] all predicted malnutrition, particularly stunting, in multiple studies and reviews, leading some authors to conclude that many relevant determinants of growth faltering are already established at birth [19]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Child malnutrition in Ifanadiana district, Madagascar: associated factors and timing of growth faltering ahead of a health system strengthening intervention

McCuskee

Garchitorena

Miller

et al. 2018

Global Health Action

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Background: Child malnutrition, a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, is particularly severe in Madagascar, where 47% of children under 5 years are stunted (low height-for-age) and 8% are wasted (low weight-for-height). Widespread poverty and a weak health system have hindered attempts to implement life-saving malnutrition interventions in Madagascar during critical periods for growth faltering. Objective: This study aimed to shed light on the most important factors associated with child malnutrition, both acute and chronic, and the timing of growth faltering, in Ifanadiana, a rural district of Madagascar. Methods: We analyzed data from a 2014 district-representative cluster household survey, which had information on 1175 children ages 6 months to 5 years. We studied the effect of child health, birth history, maternal and paternal health and education, and household wealth and sanitation on child nutritional status. Variables associated with stunting and wasting were modeled separately in multivariate logistic regressions. Growth faltering was modeled by age range. All analyses were survey-adjusted. Results: Stunting was associated with increasing child age (OR = 1.03 (95%CI 1.02–1.04) for each additional month), very small birth size (OR = 2.32 (1.24–4.32)), low maternal weight (OR = 0.94 (0.91–0.97) for each kilogram, kg) and height (OR = 0.95 (0.92–0.99) for each centimeter), and low paternal height (OR = 0.95 (0.92–0.98)). Wasting was associated with younger child age (OR = 0.98 (0.97–0.99)), very small birth size (OR = 2.48 (1.23–4.99)), and low maternal BMI (OR = 0.84 (0.75–0.94) for each kg/m2). Height-for-age faltered rapidly before 24 months, then slowly until age 5 years, whereas weight-for-height faltered rapidly before 12 months, then recovered gradually until age 5 years but did not reach the median. Conclusion: Intergenerational transmission of growth faltering and early life exposures may be important determinants of malnutrition in Ifanadiana. Timing of growth faltering, in the first 1000 days, is similar to international populations; however, child growth does not recover to the median.

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“…Despite the high prevalence of stunting among children, its determinants are poorly established and understood [10] and limited studies have been undertaken especially in the Northern region to identify the determinants of malnutrition among children [11]. As Ghana strives to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the year 2030, ensuring nutritional well-being is key [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of maternal and child factors on stunting, wasting and underweight among preschool children in Northern Ghana

et al. 2017

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Background: Undernutrition among preschool children in Northern region is the highest in Ghana. However, there is scarcity of data on the factors that determine undernutrition in these children. This study investigated the effect of maternal and child factors on undernutrition among preschool children in Northern Ghana. Methods: This study was a community based analytical cross-sectional survey on a sample of 425 mother-child pairs drawn from 25 clusters. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on maternal and child socio-demographic characteristics, feeding practices and anthropometry. Anthropometric indices of Height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ), Weight-for-height Z-scores (WHZ) and Weight-for -age Z-scores (WAZ) were used to classify child stunting, wasting and underweight respectively. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine associations between explanatory variables and undernutrition. Results: The prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight were 28.2, 9.9 and 19.3% respectively. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that, the odds of stunting was higher among male children [AOR = 1. Conclusion: Maternal height associated negatively with stunting but not wasting. Factors that affect low height -forage z-score (HAZ) may not necessarily be the same as stunting. Infant and child feeding practices as measured by dietary diversity score associated positively with weight-for-height Z-scores than length-for-age Z-scores of young children. Surprisingly, consumption of some specific food groups including, animal source foods, legumes, staples and eggs were associated with lower HAZ but with increased likelihood of higher WHZ among children 6-59 months.

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Childhood Malnutrition and Its Determinants among Under‐Five Children in Ghana

Abstract: Policies and intervention strategies aimed at improving childhood nutrition and health should address the risk factors identified and the need to search for additional risk factors that might account for the unexplained household-level variations.

Cited by 99 publications

References 21 publications

Socio-economic factors and child health status in Ghana

Socio-economic factors and child health status in Ghana

Child malnutrition in Ifanadiana district, Madagascar: associated factors and timing of growth faltering ahead of a health system strengthening intervention

The effect of maternal and child factors on stunting, wasting and underweight among preschool children in Northern Ghana

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