Thème :

Santé maternelle et infantile

Type de présentation :

Présentation Orale

Titre abstract :

Assessment of nutritional status of children aged 6 - 24 months in the dschang health district, West Cameroon.

Auteurs :

Isidore BELL PALLAWO^1* , Ghyslaine Bruna DJEUNANG DONGHO² , Joseph FOKAM³ , KIEN-ATSU TSI¹ , Armand TIOTSIA TSAPI² , Raymond Bernard PALLAWO⁵ , Jimmy Roger FOTSO³ , Gianluca RUSSO² ,  Martin SANOU SOBZE⁴

 

Institutions:

¹University of Dschang, Cameroon ; ²University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy ; ³University of Yaounde I,Cameroun ; 4University of Dschang, Cameroon ;⁵ WHO.

Corresponding authors :

bellpallawoisidore@gmail.com

Référence :

CaHReF 2018, Yaoundé Congres hall, 08 – 11 January 2019 , OAU026

Abstract :

Background: Proper nutrition during the first two years of life is of great importance to ensure optimal physical and mental development of children.

Objectif: This study aimed to assess of nutritional status among children aged 6 - 24 months in the Dschang District Hospital.

Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted from July to September 2015 involving 208 children at the immunization unit of the Dschang District Hospital, Cameroon. A face to face standard questionnaire was administered to mothers and anthropometric measures of children (weight and height) were collected. Any child with a z-score less than -2 was considered undernourished and greater than 2 was considered over-nourished. P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Among 208 children surveyed, a median age of 9 months and a boy/girl sex ratio of 0.98 was observed. Only 15.87% were malnourished. The prevalence of stunting, wasting, underweight (<-2SD) and overweight/obesity (>2SD) calculated according to WHO standards were 13.5%, 3.4%, 3.4% and 21.63% respectively. Interestingly, mother's height (P-value: 0.0033) and their marital status i.e polygamy (P-value: 0.0416) were the main determinants of nutritional status.

Conclusion/Recommandation: Malnutrition remains a major concern for child health in the Dschang Health District. Nutrition education on awareness for exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months, a balanced diet for children greater than 6 months coupled with anthropometric parameters follow up from birth could be possible solutions to this public health concern.

Key Words: Assessment, Nutritional Status, Children, West Cameroon