Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition in Children under Five in the Tolon District_2016

Abstract

Introduction: malnutrition in children has become a major public health issue accounting for about 30% of mortality among under-five children worldwide. Bilateral pitting oedema of nutritional origin or a mid-upper-arm circumference of less than 110mm in children age 1-5years are ways to identify the presence of Severe Acute Malnutrition. Children with SAM do not only turn to be susceptible to diseases and death but may be likely to have abnormal cognitive development, poor performance in school and makes children attain little intellectually in later age. This study therefore seeks to assess the management of Severe Acute Malnutrition among children under five in the Tolon district. Method: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study design using quantitative research tools. Simple random sampling strategy was used to recruit 182 caregivers of children under five with SAM condition in the Tolon district in the Northern region of Ghana. Data from administered questionnaires was analyzed using STATA version 13. Findings: The study found difficulty in food acquisition to be one major risk factor of SAM in the Tolon district. Number of children a caregiver has was significantly associated with the number of times child feed in a day (p<0.006). Caregiver’s occupation was significantly associated with child’s first introduction to water (p<0.011) and child’s first introduction to household foods (p<0.001) Conclusion/Recommendation: Management of SAM should be geared toward educating caregivers to increase their knowledge on the condition and its management in order to sustain SAM management practices after the children are treated and discharged