Abstract:
In Ghana, the main barriers to scaling up nutrition interventions have been identified at the national level yet there is a knowledge gap regarding the determinants of malnutrition at the regional, district and sub-district levels where nutrition interventions are directly carried out. In the three northern regions, malnutrition is an underlying cause of high morbidity and mortality among children under the age of five. This study, therefore, used the 2008 GDHS and binary logistic regression analysis to assess the determinants of malnutrition among children under the age of five in the three northern regions of Ghana so as to fill the gap in the literature when it comes to the possible explanatory factors behind the high proportion of malnourished children in northern Ghana. The study was designed to answer the following research questions: (1) Does the wealth index of households in the three northern regions influence stunting among children under the age of five? (2) What is the relationship between the educational level of mothers and stunting among children under the age of five in the three northern regions? (3) Is there any relationship between place of residence and stunting among children in northern Ghana? Drawing on the review of the literature on children’s nutritional status by Wondimagegn (2014), it has been hypothesized in this study that maternal education, household wealth and urban residence lead to a reduction in childhood malnutrition.
The results from the bivariate analysis revealed that age of child and succeeding birth interval had a significant association with stunting among children. Moreover, regression results revealed age of child, size of child at birth, wealth index and place of residence as the key determinants of malnutrition among children in the study area. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that more research be undertaken to investigate district and sub-district level impacts of malnutrition among children.
