1. Malnutrition Determinants in Young Children from Burkina Faso
- Author
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Justin Tiendrebéogo, Sabine Gabrysch, Claudia Beiersmann, Justo Bermejo Lorenzo, Mamadou Bountogo, Maurice Yé, Olaf Müller, and Albrecht Jahn
- Subjects
Male ,Rural Population ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Cross-sectional study ,Culture ,Child Welfare ,Developing country ,Rural Health ,Outcome variable ,Risk Factors ,Burkina Faso ,Prevalence ,Humans ,Medicine ,Wasting ,Socioeconomic status ,Family Characteristics ,business.industry ,Public health ,Malnutrition ,Age Factors ,Infant ,Anthropometry ,medicine.disease ,Religion ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Infectious Diseases ,Socioeconomic Factors ,Child, Preschool ,Population Surveillance ,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health ,Regression Analysis ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,business ,Demography - Abstract
Childhood malnutrition remains a major challenge to public health in poor countries. Data on malnutrition determinants in African children are scarce. A cross-sectional survey was performed in eight villages of Burkina Faso in June 2009, including 460 children aged 6-31 months. Demographic, socioeconomic, parasitological, clinical and anthropometric characteristics were collected. The main outcome variable was weight-for-length (WFL) z-score (i.e. wasting). A multiple regression model identified village, age group, religion and the presence of younger siblings as significantly associated with wasting. Villages differed in their mean WFL z-score by up to one unit. Compared with younger children, the mean WFL z-score of children aged 24-35 months was 0.63 units higher than the WFL z-score in younger children. This study confirms the still unacceptable high level of malnutrition in young children of rural West Africa and supports the fact that childhood malnutrition is a complex phenomenon highly influenced by contextual variables.
- Published
- 2013
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