Food Profiles and Exposure to Acute Malnutrition among Children Under-five in the Department of Mayo-Danay, Cameroon

Abstract

Malnutrition is a major public health issue in Cameroon. Objective. Measure the food profile association with the nutritional status of children of the Mayo-Danay Division. Material and methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study based on 433 children aged 6-59 months from a stratified two-level random sampling design was used. The nutritional status of children was evaluated according to WHO standards (2006). Food profile was estimated from the dietary diversity score (DDS) using the 24-hour recall method. Anthropometric data were analyzed using ENA for SMART and statistical tests were performed using Epi Info 7. A confidence interval of 95% and a P-value Results: Out of of 433 children recruited, 50.8% were female and 49.2% male. The Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) was at 4.2% with 3.0% being the moderate form and 1.2% the severe form. One hundred (23.2%) children were chronic malnourished, with 7.0% as moderate chronic undernourished form and 16.2% as severe chronic undernourished. Sixty out of 432 (13.9%) were underweight, of which 11.1% as moderate form and 2.8% as severe form. Cereals-roots-tubers consumption was at 98.9% and 48.8% of the children had received three meals during the past 24 hours. According to the DDS, 48.4% against 51.6% had a diet not diversified and twice exposed to the GAM than those with a diversified diet (OR = 2.891; P - value = 0 .0386). Conclusion This study confirms the impact of food diversification on acute malnutrition among children under-five years. We recommend the promotion of diversification of foods available in the Mayo-Danay Division.