Dietary Patterns and Nutritional Status of Children Under Five Years in Ghana

Abstract

Food insecurity and malnutrition remain global food and health challenge. This is likely to be severe in developing countries where statistics on food insecurity and malnutrition are high. This study examined the association between dietary pattern and child nutritional status using the weight-for-age as indicator. A child was defined as having poor nutritional status (underweight) if his or her weight-for-age index was less than minus two standard deviations below the WHO reference median. Guided by previous studies, dietary diversity was measured by a composite index score based on different food components. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine the effects of dietary pattern on child nutritional status. The 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey which is the main data source of this study, is based on a nationally representative sample survey of about 12, 831 household interviews conducted in Ghana. This study sampled a total of 1195 children aged 6–23 months in the 2014 GDHS data set children’s file. About 17% of children under five years in Ghana were found to have poor nutritional status. Child’s age, child birth size and household wealth status were found to be significant predictors of child nutritional status. However, sex of child, region, maternal education, incidence of diarrhea, place of residence and dietary pattern were found to be not significant predictor of child nutritional status. The study did not establish any relationship between dietary pattern and child nutritional status. The study recommend that more education should be provided to pregnant women by Ghana health service to improve on the child birth size of yet born children which is key to improving the health and nutritional status of children under five years in Ghana.