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The Dilemma Of Over- And Under- Nutrition Coexistence Among Western Kenya Children
Abdulkadir, AE; Sohani, SA & Agoi, F
Abstract
Kenya can be considered a relatively better developed country among the sub-Saharan
African ranks in terms of social services and yet malnutrition (under-nutrition) is still
persistent and on the increase as shown in all nutrition and other surveys carried out in
1977, 1979, 1982, 1983 and 2003. Following these reports, a comprehensive survey
was carried out in 2000 to explore all developmental and nutritional issues in Western
Kenya, particularly the villages on the eastern shores of Lake Victoria. A
comprehensive survey was carried out to explore any health/developmental issues that
might have existed in this target group, particularly the school age children. Of the
many developmental issues investigated, nutrition concerns were top priority. The
analysis of the nutritional component of the survey confirmed coexistence of stunting
and over-weight among the surveyed children. However, the impact was more
pronounced in boys whereby their respective height- for- age indices were <= 5th
centile of the WHO standard reference population and those of the girls were ranging
between 5th and 25th centiles. Concomitantly female children (70%) were more
overweight than the boys (42%) in terms of weight- for- age, which can be recognised
as a nutrition problem related to child developmental issues. It is also known that
childhood obesity and/or overweight have positive correlations to later adult life
episodes of degenerative diseases like diabetes mellitus, coronary health diseases and
hypertension. On the part of the parents and/or care-givers, about 57% were familiar
with growth charts and their respective interpretations indicating more frequent visits
to health care centres and posts. From the above findings it can be extrapolated that
Kenyan infants/children at the surveyed area are in the midst of nutritional transition.
Therefore, local authority's intervention at this critical stage of the subject children's
life-cycle is needed to secure the desired child growth trajectory for better health
outcomes.
Keywords
Stunting, overweight, growth-reference, western Kenya
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