Nutrition status of children under five years in tobacco growing and non-tobacco growing households in Kiryandongo district, Uganda

Abstract

Introduction and background: Globally 300 million children under 5years suffer from under-nutrition, which varies from region to region. A tobacco growing rural area in Malawi reported under nutrition like in Kiryandongo District where stunting is 27%, another tobacco growing area. To identify under nutrition in tobacco growing areas is a good step for generating evidence on nutritional intervention programs. A study was designed to establish the nutrition status in tobacco growing and non-tobacco growing households and factors influencing nutritional status in Kiryandongo. Methods: Across sectional study was conducted among 492 children aged 6 to 59 months selected from households, using multi-stage cluster sampling technique in Kiryandongo, mid western Uganda. Standard anthropometry tools using stedeometers, digital seca-scale and MUAC tapes were used to measure stunting (height for age), underweight (weight for age) and wasting (weight for height). Age was assessed using child health cards or direct information from the mother. Independent variables and other household characteristics were obtained from direct interviews with household heads. Data were captured in epi-data and exported to Stata for analysis. Descriptive statistics were generated and logistic regression models were fitted to identify potential predictors (significant predictor, P-value < 0.05). Results: Majority of respondents were male (60%), within the age group of 25-34years being dominant (50.2%). Majority of the children were immunized (80.0%) and were exclusively breastfed (80.0%), more than half of the immunized (52.9%) and exclusively breastfed (50.6%) children were from non-tobacco growing households. Stunting was at 38.3% and 27.6% in tobacco and non-tobacco growing households respectively. Underweight and wasting levels were estimated at 23 % and 10.3% in tobacco growing households. Predictors of stunting are gender,[OR 0.60;95%CI (0.40, 0.92)],tobacco growing [OR 1.6;95% CI (1.02,2.50)], age of householdhead(35-44)years,[OR0.14;95%CI(0.27,0.67)],andsocio-economicstatus ,[OR0.5;95%CI(0.35,0.99)]. Underweight was associated with dietary intake [OR 0.37; 95% CI 0.02, 0.77)] and primary education level of household head [OR 0.47; 95% CI (0.22, 0.98)]. xiii

Conclusion: This study demonstrated under nutrition: stunting, underweight and wasting were high especially in tobacco growing households. Poor wealth index, poor dietary intake, age of household head (19-24 years) and tobacco growing were independent predictors for stuntingand underweight, furthermore underweight was significantly associate with no formal education of household head.