Nursing and Midwifery Training College, P.O. Box 110, Kumasi, Ghana.
Department of Child Health, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Afr Health Sci. 2023 Mar;23(1):693-703. doi: 10.4314/ahs.v23i1.74.
Malnutrition is a significant public health problem and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children.
To assess knowledge and socioeconomic status of caregivers of children under 5 years with malnutrition at a district hospital in Ghana.
Case Report forms were used to gather data in a cross-sectional study which was carried out among 189 caregivers and their children aged from zero to fifty-nine months at the Out-Patient Department clinic.
Most (80.95%) children had marasmus. Sixty-two point four-two percent had severe wasting, while 35.45% had mild stunting. The rest, 21.69% had moderate stunting; while only 2.12% severe stunting. Almost all caregivers (94.71%) had heard of exclusive breast feeding as a good feeding practice but only 58.20% practiced it. Most caregivers (68.26%) had no education or only up to basic level, p=0.035. The average number of children per family was 4.8 per household (SD: 1.69) with majority of them (64.55%) having 4-6 children per family and 13.23% of them had more than 7 children per family, p=0.009. More than a third (37.04%) of the caregivers earned less than a hundred Ghana cedis (GhC 100 [US$ 19] per month and 50.26% of them earned between GhC 101 (US$ 19) and GhC 500 (US$ 96) per month.
Lower level of caregivers' education and large family size were risk factors for developing malnutrition among children.
营养不良是一个严重的公共卫生问题，也是儿童发病率和死亡率的主要原因。
评估加纳区医院 5 岁以下营养不良儿童照顾者的知识和社会经济状况。
采用病例报告表，在门诊诊所对 189 名照顾者及其 0-59 个月大的儿童进行横断面研究，收集数据。
大多数（80.95%）儿童患有消瘦症。62.42%有严重消瘦，而 35.45%有轻度发育迟缓。其余 21.69%有中度发育迟缓，而只有 2.12%有严重发育迟缓。几乎所有照顾者（94.71%）都听说过纯母乳喂养是一种良好的喂养方式，但只有 58.20%的人实践过。大多数照顾者（68.26%）没有受过教育或只受过基础教育，p=0.035。每个家庭的平均儿童人数为 4.8 人/户（标准差：1.69），其中大多数（64.55%）家庭有 4-6 个孩子，13.23%的家庭有 7 个以上的孩子，p=0.009。超过三分之一（37.04%）的照顾者每月收入低于 100 加纳塞地（100 加纳塞地约合 19 美元），50.26%的照顾者每月收入在 101 加纳塞地（19 美元）至 500 加纳塞地（96 美元）之间。
照顾者教育水平较低和家庭规模较大是儿童发生营养不良的危险因素。
