Chronic child malnutrition in the Tete province (Mozambique)

Abstract

Objectives: Determinate which factors associate with the starting and development of stunting in the Tete Province, Mozambique. Material and methods: Case-control study with 94 children who came to health centers 2 and 3 and the Tete Province Hospital during September 2015. Children with chronic malnutrition were considered as cases (n=47), and those with no sign of malnutrition were taken as controls (n=47). Using a survey, different variables related with the mother, the children and the environment were collected. The association of these variables was then analyzed between both groups. Statistical analyses were performed in SPSS using bivariate comparisons and logistic regressions. Results: In the study population 41,5% were boys and 58,5% girls, being the average age of 18 months. Relationship between birth weight and chronic malnutrition was statistically significant [(p=0,04 OR: 0,25 CI95% (0,06-0,99)]. Conclusion: A higher weight at birth acts as a protector factor for chronic malnutrition. Gender wasn’t related with the possibility of having chronic malnutrition. A higher percentage of chronic malnutrition was found in those children who hadn’t been dewormed, whose mothers had a bigger number of pregnancies and those living in mudbrick houses. However, and probably because of the small sample size, these differences were not statistically significant.