Evaluation of the child growth monitoring programme in two Zimbabwean provinces

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Evaluation of the child growth monitoring programme in two Zimbabwean provinces
 
Creator Marume, Anesu Mahomed, Saajida Archary, Moherndran
 
Subject Child growth; family medicine; growth monitoring adverse nutrition outcome; children; weight-for-age; height-for-age; growth faltering; growth monitoring; Zimbabw
Description Background: The child growth monitoring (CGM) programme is an important element of nutrition programmes, and when combined with other child health programmes, it can assist in successful management and control of malnutrition in children.Aim: This study aimed to assess the extent to which the CGM programme is able to identify instances of childhood malnutrition and how much this contributes towards malnutrition reduction in Zimbabwe.Setting: The study was conducted in Manicaland and Matabeleland South provinces of Zimbabwe. The two provinces were purposively selected for having the highest and least proportion of children affected by stunting in the country.Methods: The CGM programme in Zimbabwe was evaluated using the logic model to assess the ability of the programme to identify growth faltering and link children to appropriate care.Results: Records from 60 health facilities were reviewed. Interviews were conducted with 60 nurses, 100 village health workers (VHWs) and 850 caregivers (300 health facility exit interviews, 450 community based). Nearly all (92%) health facilities visited had functional measuring scales. Twelve health facilities (20%) had no functional height board, with five using warped height boards for measuring children’s height. Less than a quarter (21%) of the children had complete records for weight for age and height for age. A large proportion of children eligible for admission for the management of moderate (83%) and severe malnutrition (84%) were missed.Conclusion: The CGM programme in Zimbabwe is not well equipped for assessing child height for age and management of children identified with malnutrition, thus failing to timely identify and manage childhood stunting. 
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2022-07-06
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Process-outcome Evaluation
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v14i1.3373
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 14, No 1 (2022); 8 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3373/5443 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3373/5444 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3373/5445 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3373/5446
 
Coverage Zimbabwe 2018-2020 Children under 5 years, Nurses, Community Health Workers
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Anesu Marume, Saajida Mahomed, Moherndran Archary https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT