Assessing the Nutritional Status of Orphaned and Non- Orphaned Children Aged 6-59 Months in Kakamega County, Kenya.

Abstract


Child malnutrition is globally the highest risk factor for illness and death. It contributes to more than half of deaths in children worldwide. Children who lose their parents may face many hardships including food insecurity and poor child care resulting into malnutrition. However, in Kenya and the entire sub-Saharan Africa the problem of orphan-hood is expected to increase in the coming years due to more deaths from HIV/AIDS and other disasters. The objective of this study was to assess the nutritional status of orphaned and non-orphaned children. The study was a cross sectional study where both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. A structured questionnaire was administered to 306 care takers of orphans and nonorphans. The nutritional status of the children was determined by use of anthropometric measurements; weight for age (underweight), height for age (stunting) and weight for height (wasting) and pitting edema. Focus Group Discussions and key informant interviews were also conducted. Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Emergency Nutrition Assessment (ENA) were used to analyze the data. Pearson chisquare and t-test statistics were used to test the significance of the relations while ranking was used to compare proportions of occurrence. The prevalence of malnutrition was high in the County (stunting 28.5%, wasting 6.9% and underweight 9.5% with wasting being more pronounced in Kakamega North Sub County. Boys were found to be more vulnerable to underweight (p value =0.025) and children aged 30-41 months were more stunted (p=0.009). However study found that there was no association between child malnutrition and orphan hood and therefore the children had equal chances of becoming malnourished it is recommended that the county and national governments should formulate and implement policies targeting all the children regardless of their orphan hood status. The County Integrated Plans (CIDPs) and national government policies need to stipulate well the nutrition intervention plans for the county.



Mary Mutete Muema Edward Neyole Ruth Simiyu | source: International Journal of Scientific Research and Management 553 |
Categories: Care


Other articles

Oral and Dental Health Status in Orphan Children of Lucknow

Background: Orphans lack parental support and receive little oral health care. Therefore there is a propensity to develop…

Read more

The capacity of the extended family safety net for orphans in Africa

This paper reviews published studies on orphans and describes indicators by which weakened or saturated extended family…

Read more

Oral health status of orphanage children, Tumkur: A survey report

Background and Aim: It has been well documented that the absence of family support influences the general and oral health…

Read more

Emerging health disparities in Botswana: Examining the situation of orphans during the AIDS epidemic

Botswana has the second highest HIV prevalence rate and highest rate of orphanhood in the world. Although child mortality…

Read more