The prevalence of underweight in children aged 5 years and younger attending primary health care clinics in the Mangaung area, Free State
African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine
| Field | Value | |
| Title | The prevalence of underweight in children aged 5 years and younger attending primary health care clinics in the Mangaung area, Free State | |
| Creator | Koetaan, Danae Smith, Andrea Liebenberg, Anke Brits, Marietjie Halkas, Christos Van Lill, Maresa Joubert, Gina | |
| Description | Background: The Constitution of South Africa stipulates that all children have the right to basic nutrition; however, a great number of South African children are underweight for age. It is important to address malnutrition as it is associated with more than 50% of all child deathsin developing countries and also increases the risk for infective diseases.Aim: To determine the prevalence of underweight in children aged 5 years and younger attending primary health care clinics in the Mangaung area, Free State, and determine the possible underlying causes thereof.Setting: Six preselected primary health care clinics in the Mangaung area.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Demographic and clinical information and anthropometric measurements were collected from the children’s Road-to-Health clinic cards,obtained from the children’s caregivers.Results: In total, 240 children were included, of which 51.7% were girls. The median age was 7.5 months. The weight-for-age graph revealed that 7.7% (95% confidence interval: 4.8%;11.9%) of children were underweight or severely underweight for age. Length-for-age and weight-for-height graphs were mostly incomplete. Underweight children differed from normal weight children regarding birth weight (low birth weight 70.6% vs. 12.4%) and history of malnutrition (60.0% vs. 7.1%).Conclusion: The prevalence of underweight in children aged 0–5 years attending primary health care clinics in Mangaung is 7.7% based on information available from Road-to-Healthcards. This figure could be higher if these cards were filled in more accurately. A low birth weight and history of malnutrition are associated with underweight. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2018-05-28 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/phcfm.v10i1.1476 | |
| Source | African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 10, No 1 (2018); 5 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/1476/2547
https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1476/2546
https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1476/2548
https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1476/2516
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