Bandoh Delia Akosua, Manu Abubakar, Kenu Ernest
1Ghana Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
2School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
BMC Nutr. 2018 May 2;4:20. doi: 10.1186/s40795-018-0229-8. eCollection 2018.
Malnutrition is a major problem in the world, especially in developing countries such as Ghana. Malnutrition is directly and indirectly responsible for over a million deaths in under-fives worldwide. In spite of the abundance of protein from fish and other staples in fishing communities, they are not spared of the problem of undernutrition. The study sought to assess the prevalence undernutrition among children under-five years in a fishing community in Ghana.
We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study in Ekumfi Narkwa. We assessed the nutritional status of 250 children aged 6-59 months using anthropometric methods. A structured questionnaire was also used to gather socio-demographic data on the children. We generated nutritional indices with Microsoft Excel 2010 and WHO Anthro software version 3.2.2. We generate frequencies and percentages and ran a simple logistic regression to determine factors associated with malnutrition using STATA software version 13.
About 80%(198/250) of the children were reported to have consumed fish products more than three times in the past week whiles 85%(214/250) consumed staples more than three times in the past week. More than one-quarter (26.4%) of the children were under-nourished. The prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight were 17.6% (44/250), 4.4% (11/250) and 12% (30/250) respectively. Age of caregiver was found to be associated with a child being underweight. The age group of the caregiver was found to be associated with undernutrition (OR:1.53; 95%CI:1.07-219).
These findings suggest a high prevalence of under-five undernutrition in the fishing community in spite of the abundance of fish and its presence in their diet. Malnutrition interventions should therefore be extended to these communities. These interventions in fishing communities need to be tailored towards caregiver utilization of fish and other food sources available in order to improve nutrition of the children.
营养不良是全球的一个主要问题，尤其是在加纳等发展中国家。营养不良直接或间接导致全球超过100万五岁以下儿童死亡。尽管渔业社区有丰富的鱼类和其他主食提供的蛋白质，但他们也未能幸免营养不良问题。该研究旨在评估加纳一个渔业社区五岁以下儿童的营养不良患病率。
我们在埃昆菲·纳尔克瓦开展了一项基于社区的横断面研究。我们使用人体测量方法评估了250名6至59个月大儿童的营养状况。还使用一份结构化问卷收集了这些儿童的社会人口学数据。我们使用Microsoft Excel 2010和世卫组织Anthro软件3.2.2版生成营养指数。我们计算频率和百分比，并使用STATA软件13版进行简单逻辑回归以确定与营养不良相关的因素。
据报告，约80%（198/250）的儿童在过去一周内食用鱼类产品超过三次，而85%（214/250）的儿童在过去一周内食用主食超过三次。超过四分之一（26.4%）的儿童营养不良。发育迟缓、消瘦和体重不足的患病率分别为17.6%（44/250）、4.4%（11/250）和12%（30/250）。发现照顾者的年龄与儿童体重不足有关。发现照顾者的年龄组与营养不良有关（比值比：1.53；95%置信区间：1.07 - 2.19）。
这些研究结果表明，尽管该渔业社区有丰富的鱼类且鱼类是其饮食的一部分，但五岁以下儿童营养不良的患病率仍然很高。因此，营养不良干预措施应扩展到这些社区。在渔业社区开展的这些干预措施需要针对照顾者对鱼类和其他可用食物来源的利用情况进行调整，以改善儿童的营养状况。
