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Malnutrition is one of the most serious health problems affecting infants, children and
women of reproductive age. The first year of an infant’s life is considered a critical period
for child growth and development. A cross-sectional study was carried out in Chamwino
district in Dodoma region in Tanzania to assess factors determining the nutritional status
of infants. The study explored such issues as socio-demographic, feeding practices and
elements of disease pattern that would potentially influence the nutritional status of
infants. Random sampling was used to select a sample of 354 mother-child pair from two
wards. A structured questionnaire consisting mainly of closed and few open-ended
questions was used to collect data from the selected respondents. Anthropometric
measurements on the part of infants were taken by using standard procedures and
equipment. Quantitative data obtained through structured interview was analyzed by using
Statistical Product for Service Solutions, version 20 (SPSS). From it, descriptive statistics
such as frequencies, percentiles, and cross tabulations were used to summarize the results.
A chi-square test was used to test the association among categorical variables and means
comparison was done by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Anthropometric data were
analyzed by WHO Anthrosoftware (version.3.2.2) and three indices i.e. length-for age,
weight-for-length and weight-for-age z-scores were determined to assess the nutritional
status of infants. Initiations of breastfeeding, feeding of colostrum and prevalence of
exclusive breastfeeding for six months were 82.2, 97.7 and 52.3%, respectively. There was
early introduction of complementary feeding, and frequency of feeding per day was
suboptimal with half (50.6%) of infants being fed one-to-two times a day. There was a
statistically significant difference between weight-for-length and time of commencement
(p= 0.048) and frequency (p = 0.043) of complementary feeding per day. Demographic
characteristics like education level of the mother, age and birth weight of infants, and
expenditure per day were significantly associated (p <0.05) with nutritional status of infants. Of all the infants, 45.8% as reported from this study, suffered from one disease
or the other, with majority (44.4 %) suffering from respiratory infection. Elements of
disease pattern were statistically associated with nutritional status as measured by weight
for-length (p= 0.043) and weight-for-age (p= 0.000). The prevalence of undernutrition was
14.6, 4.5, and 2.3% stunting, underweight and wasting, respectively; and that of
overweight was higher (7.6%) than the national average figure (5%). Conclusively, the
nutritional status of this age group is sub-optimal and therefore attention is needed to
address and improve the aforementioned issues that have potential and significant effect
on the nutritional status. The approach to address these issues should be mult-sectoral as they are diverse. |
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