Risk Factors of Mid-upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) Based Child Malnutrition in the Flood-affected Areas of Pakistan: A Cross-sectional Study

Disparities with global standards about growth references of mid-upper arm circumference-for-age for Pakistani children aged 6-60 months

AIM

Growth reference values about mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) are vital for assessing children's nutritional status. However, Pakistan lacks these reference values and growth charts. This study aims to develop these for children aged 6-60 months and compare them with global standards.

METHODS

The data were acquired from the 2018 National Nutrition Survey of Pakistan, which was conducted by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) during 2018-2019. The final study cohort comprised 57 285 children, with 51% being boys. Percentile values and charts for MUAC-for-age were developed using generalised additive models for location, scale and shape with the Box-Cox power exponential distribution.

RESULTS

The mean MUAC was 14.21 cm (±2.07 cm) and 14.13 cm (±2.12 cm) for the boys and girls, respectively. At 60 months of age, the P3 and P97 percentiles for girls were slightly higher than those for boys. The median percentiles of Pakistani children were smaller than the World Health Organisation 2007 standards and with international references.

CONCLUSION

We observed disparities in MUAC-for-age growth references among Pakistani children compared to global standards, highlighting regional, age and gender variations. This underscores the need for developing countries like Pakistan to establish their growth references.

Risk Factors of Wasting-Based Malnutrition in the Flood-Affected Areas of Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Study

The current study aimed to find the risk factors of wasting in flood-affected areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Sociodemographic and anthropometric data was collected. Children living in large family are 2.59 times more likely to be wasted (AOR = 2.59, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.10, 6.10; p value = .029) and children living in medium size family are 2.23 times more likely to be wasted (AOR = 2.23, 95% CI: 1.03, 4.80; p value = .04) as compared to children in small family size. The study underscores the need for targeted interventions to address the identified risk factors and mitigate the impact of flooding on child nutrition.

Factors mediating the association between recurring floods and child chronic undernutrition in northern Bangladesh

OBJECTIVES

Although there is some evidence that flood exposure in Bangladesh and other developing countries increases the risk of chronic undernutrition in children, the underlying mechanisms are, to our knowledge, unknown. The objectives of this research are to examine the association between recurrent flood exposure and the likelihood of chronic undernutrition in children and to investigate the mediators of this association.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Naogaon District in northern Bangladesh. Purposive sampling was used to choose 800 children between the ages of 12 and 59 mo in equal numbers in the specified flood-affected and flood-unaffected areas: 400 children from the flood-affected area and 400 from the flood-unaffected area. The nutrition indicator height for age, expressed as z scores, was used to define child chronic undernutrition. Our study focused on children who have been exposed to multiple floods in the past 5 y.

RESULTS

In our sample data, children who had experienced flooding had a 1.74-times higher chance of having chronic undernutrition (95% CI, 1.53-2.28) than children who had not experienced flooding. The mediation analyses found inadequate minimum dietary diversity, history of diarrhea, not being fully vaccinated, not using clean cooking fuel, and not having a separate kitchen contributed 19.5%, 10%, 9.8%, 14.8%, and 10%, respectively, to the flood exposure-child undernutrition association.

CONCLUSIONS

Flood exposure was found associated with the likelihood of child chronic undernutrition, and this relationship was mediated through lack of having a separate kitchen, history of diarrhea, insufficient vaccination, use of unclean cooking fuel, and poor minimum dietary diversity. Interventions to reduce the prevalence of these risk factors could contribute to reducing the disparities in child undernourishment brought on by exposure to flooding.

Application of the Boruta algorithm to assess the multidimensional determinants of malnutrition among children under five years living in southern Punjab, Pakistan

BACKGROUND

Malnutrition causes nutrient deficiencies that have both physical and clinical consequences in severe acute malnutrition children. Globally, there were 47 million wasted children under the age of five in 2019. One in four were located in sub-Saharan Africa, with half being in South Asia. This study aims to apply the Boruta algorithm to identify the determinants of undernutrition among children under five living in Dera Ghazi Khan, one of the marginalized districts of densely populated Punjab Province in Pakistan.

METHODS

A multicenter cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from 185 children with severe acute malnutrition aged under five years visiting the OTPs centers located in Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, Pakistan. A purposive sampling technique was used to collect data using a pretested structured questionnaire from parents/caregivers regarding family sociodemographic characteristics, child nutrition, and biological and healthcare characteristics. Anthropometric measurements, including height, weight, and mid-upper arm circumference, were collected. The Boruta models were used to incorporate the children's anthropometric, nutritional, and household factors to determine the important predictive variables for undernutrition using the Boruta package in R studio.

RESULTS

This study included 185 children, with a mean age of 15.36 ± 10.23 months and an MUAC of 10.19 ± 0.96 cm. The Boruta analysis identifies age, mid-upper arm circumference, weaning practices, and immunization status as important predictors of undernutrition. Income per month, exclusive breastfeeding, and immunization status were found to be key factors of undernutrition in children under the age of five.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights age, mid-upper arm circumference, weaning practices, and immunization status as key determinants of weight-for-height and weight-for-age in children under five years. It also suggests that economic context may influence undernutrition. The findings can guide targeted strategies for combating undernutrition.

Prevalence of Acute Malnutrition and Associated Factors among Children aged 6-59 months in South Wollo Zone, East Amhara, Northeast Ethiopia: a Community-based cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of acute malnutrition and associated factors in South Wollo zone, East Amhara, Northeast Ethiopia.

DESIGN

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 504 children aged 6-59 months who were selected by using a multistage sampling technique. The mid-upper-arm-circumference and Z-scores for weight-for-height were used to determine the nutritional status of the participants. A semi-structured interview questionnaire was used to collect the data. Then data was entered into EpiData V.3.1 and exported to SPSS software V.25 for analysis. Binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with acute malnutrition and variables with p value<0.05 were declared as statistically significant.

SETTING

The study was conducted in South Wollo zone, Northeast Ethiopia from 1 August 2020 to 30 September 2020.

PARTICIPANTS

Children aged 6-59 months with their mothers were the study subjects.

RESULTS

The prevalence of acute malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months was 31.0%. Child aged 6-11 months (adjusted OR (AOR)=3.92; 95% CI: 1.74 to 8.82), illiterate mothers (AOR=3.01; 95% CI: 1.92 to 7.01), single mother (AOR=3.06; 95% CI: 1.32 to 7.07), lack of latrine (AOR=2.39; 95% CI: 1.12 to 5.11), diarrhoea (AOR=4.18; 95% CI: 2.02 to 8.65), respiratory tract infection (AOR=2.31; 95% CI: 1.08 to 4.94), family size (≥5) (AOR=3.29; 95% CI: 1.53 to 7.09) and cessation of breast feeding before 2 years (AOR=3.79; 95% CI: 1.71 to 8.23) were the independent predictors of acute malnutrition.

CONCLUSION

Acute malnutrition is highly prevalent in the study area which is more than the national figure. Thus, improving maternal education, access to the latrine, improved breastfeeding practice, improved family planning usage and early detection and treatment of diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections will enhance children's nutritional status. In addition, nutritional diversity education needs to be strengthened.

The impact of climate change on children's nutritional status in coastal Bangladesh

This paper studies the impact of climate change on the nutritional status of very young children between the ages of 0-3 years by using weather data from the last half century merged with rich information on child, mother, and household characteristics in rural coastal Bangladesh. We evaluate the health consequences of rising temperature and relative humidity and varying rainfall jointly employing alternate functional forms. Leveraging models that control for annual trends and location-specific seasonality, and that allow the impacts of temperature to vary non-parametrically while rainfall and humidity have flexible non-linear forms, we find that temperatures that exceed 25 °C (the "comfortable" benchmark) in the month of birth exert negative effects on children's nutritional status as measured by mid upper arm circumference. Humidity has a positive impact which persists when child, mother and household controls are included. We find that exposure to changing climate in utero also matters. Explanations for these results include consequences of weather fluctuations on the extent of pasture, cropland, and rainfed lands planted with rice and other crops, and on mother's age at first marriage. Our results underline that climate change has real consequences for the health of very young populations in vulnerable areas.

Prevalence and determinants of stunting among preschool and school-going children in the flood-affected areas of Pakistan

Stunting is a significant public health problem in low- and middle-income countries. This study assessed the prevalence of stunting and associated risk factors of stunting among preschool and school-going children in flood-affected areas of Pakistan. A cross-sectional study was conducted by visiting 656 households through multi-stage sampling. Respondent's anthropometric measurements, socio-demographic information and sanitation facilities were explored. A logistic regression model was used to determine determinants of stunting, controlling for all possible confounders. The overall prevalence of stunting in children was 40.5%, among children 36.1% boys and 46.3% of girls were stunted. The prevalence of stunting in under-five children was 50.7%. Female children (OR=1.35, 95% CI:0.94-2.0), children aged 13-24 months (OR=6.5, 95% CI: 3.0-13.9), mothers aged 15-24 years (OR=4.4, 95% CI: 2.6-7.2), joint family (OR=2.1, 95% CI: 1.4-3.0) did not have access to improved drinking water (OR=3.3, 95% CI: 1.9-5.9), and the toilet facility (OR=2.8, 95% CI, 1.9-4.3), while the children from district Nowshera (OR=1.7, 95% CI: 0.9-3.2) were significantly (P<0.05) associated in univariate analysis. The regression model revealed that child age, maternal age, family type, quality of water, and toilet facility, were the significant (P<0.05) factors contributing to child stunting in the flood-hit areas. Identification of key factors might be helpful for policymakers in designing comprehensive community-based programs for the reduction of stunting in flood-affected areas. In disasters such as flood, the detrimental consequences of the stunting problem could be even more on children. Evidence-based education and care must be provided to the families in the flood-affected regions to reduce the stunting problem. The determinants of stunting should be targeted by making comprehensive policies regarding proper nutrition, livelihood, clean water, and sanitation facilities in flood-hit regions.