Dissertation (MSc Pediatric Nursing)
Malnutrition is a major global health problem. In Tanzania, it makes one of the most serious health challenges affecting children. Fifty percent of childhood deaths are said to occur due to under nutrition. Around 82% of children with disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa live below the poverty line and 1 in 50 of the worlds poorest who get malnutrition is a child with a physical disability. Children with disabilities face more acute suffering than other children. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the Nutritional Status of Physical Disabled Children and its Associated Factors in Zanzibar. A community-based analytical cross-section study was done from January to March 2021 in Zanzibar to 196 physical disabled children of 6 to 10 years old. Nutritional assessment included anthropometric (height and weight) and hemoglobin (HB) measurements. Multi-stage sampling method was used to select the regions, districts and shehia, while Snowball sampling procedure was used to select households with disabled children. Data was collected through a standard structured self-administered questionnaire, a mother/caregiver was asked questions which they had to answer for their children, the inquiry was about socio-demographic for children and for caregivers and were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) programmed, version 25 and SAS 9.4. The P-value <0.05 was considered significant and multivariable logistic was done. The overall prevalence of severe Underweight and severe Stunting was 8.17% and 13.26 % respectively, while Prevalence of overweight and thinness was 30.62% and 9.18% in that order. One hundred and twenty-six (64%) children had low Hemoglobin (Hb< 11.0g/dl) level. Multivariate analysis indicated that children with 9-10 years were significantly more likely to have stunting comparing to those with 6-8 years (AOR=4.911, p=0.0002); Children with cerebral palsy were insignificantly more likely to have low hemoglobin compared to intellectual disabilities children (AOR=2.755, p=0.4073). Those with deafness/hearing were significant less likely to have low Hb level compared to intellectual disabilities children (AOR=0.143, p=0.0006). Children with disability require more nutrients to manage health problems related to nutrition and disability. Therefore, Zanzibar requires disability-specific services including professional special and community-based rehabilitation services.