| dc.description.abstract | Undernourishment is one of the foremost reasons of disease and mortality among children
under the age of five in Sub-Saharan Africa. Significant illnesses and deaths across the
world have been associated with malnutrition, accounting for 52.5% of all deaths among
young children across the world. Approximately 45% of all mortalities among young
children in Somalia are due to under-nutrition. In Puntland, 11% of children are wasted and
in Bari, where Bosaso is located, 37% of children are underweight. This research aimed at
assessing child and maternal related factors associated with malnutrition among children
under five in the Bosaso region, Puntland-Somalia. A descriptive cross-sectional study
design with the purposive method of non-probability sampling was deployed. The target
population included children aged between six to fifty-nine months attending the maternal
and child health clinic (MCH) and pediatric outpatient clinic at Bender Qassim Hospital in
Puntland, Somalia. Main data was gathered using a questionnaire using drop and pick
approach, while the anthropometric assessment was done using a height board and
electronic weighing scales. Data was analyzed in SPSS version 25 with descriptive
statistics and a chi-square test used to test associations between study variables. A total of
159 children were selected for the study. More than half (54.1%) were females. Most
(54.7%) of the caregivers did not attend school. Most (72.3%) of the children reported not
having diarrhea while more than half (64.8%) did not contract respiratory a fortnight before
the study. More than half (51.6%) of the children of the children had a z-score of above -
2SD while 30.2% and 18.2% were moderately and severely wasted respectively. Exclusive
breastfeeding is connected with the nutrition status of children. There is a significant
connection between nutrition status and exclusive breastfeeding, x2 (1, N=159) = 14.92, p
=0.05. The caregiver's monthly income is associated with the nutrition status of the
children. There is a significant relationship between nutrition status and monthly income,
x2 (1, N=159) = 11.82, p =0.05. The majority (69%, n=29) of severely wasted children had
caregivers earning less than 100 US monthly. The study concluded that the child factor
associated with malnutrition is exclusive breastfeeding while the maternal aspect connected
with malnutrition in children under 5s includes monthly income. Besides, the level of
malnutrition is still a community well-being concern. There is a need to generate more
cognizance of the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for women of reproductive age.
Sustainable sources of livelihood need to be enhanced to boost the average income of a
household. Also, there is a need to strengthen active case findings of children with
malnutrition so that they can be admitted to nutrition programs for management | en_US |
