DETERMINANTS OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS IN UGANDA (original) (raw)

Proper nutrition is important for the strengthening and nourishment of the mental and physical being of an individual. Improper nutrition especially that of children five years and below, pause great threats to the future of a country. This is in because, most rapid development especially mental development of individuals occurs during this age bracket. Therefore, with poor nutrition prevailing among the citizens, the productivity of an economy is weakened. A mentally and physically incapable workforce is of great risk to the country’s economic progress. Nutritional studies are usually done at an individual level, however because of the limited resources, this study employs the household as its sampling unit. In other wards nutritional status at the household level is used as a proxy for individual nutrition status. The aim of the study was to obtain a picture of the nutritional status at household level focusing on children under 5 years. This is important because households have children who are the most important individuals when it comes to nutrition policies. It was revealed that most of half the study population had a poor nutrition status. The area of residence, income level of household, the sex head, the household size and some attributes of the mother in the household had a significant relationship with nutrition status of household and mostly children under 5 years of age. The study was quantitative and secondary sources of data collection were used .Data used was got from UDHS. The 2011 UDHS collected data on the nutritional status of children by measuring the height and weight of all children under age 5. Data were collected to calculate three indices of anthropometric indicators—height-for-age, weight-for-height, and weight-for-age. Independent variables (education, wealth status, size of household) and dependent (child’s height-for-age, weight-for-height, and weight-for-age) variables. Children from poor households have poorest nutrition. There has been a decline over the past five years in the proportion of children that are stunted and underweight .Complementary foods are not introduced in a timely fashion for all children. At 6-9 months, fewer than seven in ten children (68 percent) receive complementary foods. Overall, only 6 percent of children age 6-23 months are fed appropriately, based on the recommended infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices Following the findings, it was recommended that a more intensive and larger scale research be carried out at an individual level if more realistic and achievable nutritional programs are to be drawn and if the full potential of the present and future workforce is to be realized.