The prevalence of malnutrition among children under the age of 5 years attending primary health care at the clinics in the Ba-Phalaborwa Sub-District, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition has become a problem in the world, with 2.2 million deaths of children under five years of age globally have been linked to growth retardation, stunting and severe wasting, while other 600 000 children in the same age group are said to have died due to deficiencies in Vitamin A (Black, Allen, Bhutta, Caulfield, De Onis, Ezzati, Mathers, Rivera, and Maternal and Child Undernutrition Study Group, 2008 ). Objectives: This study aimed at determining the prevalence of malnutrition in children below 5 years of age, and to quantify stunting, underweight, wasting, overweight and obesity of children in the same group. Methods: This was a descriptive quantitative study. The data for the study was collected from 10 clinics, situated in the Ba-Phalaborwa District Municipality, using a standardized questionnaire. Stratified random sampling was used and stata program was used to analyse the data. Results: A total of 404 of mothers gave positive responses for children to participate in the current study, yielding to 97.1% response rate. Fifty-two-point-two percent of these children were females. The average age of the mothers of these children was 28.3 ±7.0 years Fifty-three-point-four percent of the mothers were single, 27% were divorced, 18.6% were married and 0.5% were widowed. The overall prevalence of malnutrition among the children was 26.7%. Males had higher percentage of underweight with 19.1%, compared to females (9.9%). The highest prevalence of malnutrition in females occurred in the age group 48-59 months, at 40.0%, followed by the age groups 0-11 months, 36-47 months, 24-35 months and 12-23 months at 26.9%, 25.0%, 24.0% and 17.5%, respectively. Of the different types of malnutrition, the occurrence of obesity was the lowest among the children. Conclusion The results of the findings are consistent with the findings of other studies. However, this study could not find that characteristics such as education, type of residence or financial background contribute immensely to child malnutrition.