Predictors of poor nutritional status among children aged 6-24 months in agricultural regions of Mali: a cross-sectional study

Caroline Makamto Sobgui; Leopold Kamedjie Fezeu; Fatou Diawara; Honafing Diarra; Victor Afari-Sefa; Abdou Tenkouano

doi:10.1186/s40795-018-0225-z

Predictors of poor nutritional status among children aged 6-24 months in agricultural regions of Mali: a cross-sectional study

BMC Nutr. 2018 Apr 18:4:18. doi: 10.1186/s40795-018-0225-z. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Caroline Makamto Sobgui¹, Leopold Kamedjie Fezeu², Fatou Diawara³, Honafing Diarra¹, Victor Afari-Sefa¹, Abdou Tenkouano⁴

Affiliations

¹ World Vegetable Center, West and Central Africa, PO Box 320, Bamako, Mali.
² 2Université Paris 13, Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle (EREN), Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Statistiques, Inserm (U1153), Inra (U1125), Cnam, COMUE Sorbonne Paris Cité, F-93017 Bobigny, France.
³ Agence National de Sécurité Alimentaire, Bamako, Mali.
⁴ West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development, 7 Avenue Bourguiba, PO Box 48, Dakar, Senegal.

Abstract

Background: The right nutrition during the first 2 years of life can positively impact a child's ability to develop, grow, and learn. Malnutrition remains a public health problem in Mali and little is known about the factors affecting the nutritional status of children. This study aims to assess the magnitude and the predictors of undernutrition in children aged 6-24 months in the poor rural regions of Mali.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the villages in the Sikasso and Mopti regions in Mali from January to March 2016, comprising of 959 boys and 856 girls aged 6-24 months. A structured interviewer administered a questionnaire that was used to collect data from the mothers living in 1764 households. Anthropometric measurements were performed using standardized methods in order to identify the factors associated with children suffering from undernutrition (stunting and wasting). Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted.

Results: The results of our study indicated that 23.9 and 28.4% children were underweight and stunted; the prevalence of wasting was 13.9% using the W/H measurement and 16.5% with the MUAC. Overall, the presence of diarrhea in the past 2 weeks (p < 0.001), higher child age (p < 0.001), male sex (p < 0.001), households with the lowest household amenity score (p < 0.002), and households with a low dietary diversity score (p < 001) were significantly associated with chronic malnutrition. The factors significantly associated with acute malnutrition were male sex (p < 0.01), preterm birth (p < 0.03), lower child age (0.001), a high number of siblings (p < 0.03), and living in a household with more months of inadequate food provisioning (p < 0.03).

Conclusion: Child undernutrition is a critical public health problem in the agricultural regions of Mali. Future efforts should be directed at addressing the food insecurity and at improving the yearlong household availability and accessibility of nutritious food, as well as taking diseases prevention into account.

Keywords: Children; Mali; Stunting; Underweight; Wasting.