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Journal of Experimental Food Chemistry | Volume: 4
3rd International Conference on
May 16-18, 2018 | Montreal, Canada
Food Chemistry & Nutrition
Assessment of nutritional status and major determinants of malnutrition in children under five
years of age in Tongo Refugee Camp, Mao and Komo Special Woreda, Benishangul Gumuz Region,
Ethiopia
Addisu Mengestie
Wollega University, Ethiopia
The study covers a review on the assessment of nutritional status and major determinants of malnutrition children less than
five years of age in Tongo refugee camp. A cross-sectional quantitative study in which the results were triangulate with
key informant interview and focus group discussions results was applied to accomplish the stated objectives of the study. A
systematic random sampling method to select the sampling units was used to obtain the required number of subjects. Two
hundred and forty children were randomly selected from the camps that were getting food and other material support from
the camp. Regarding to food supply of the refugees in the refugee camp, the majority of the households depend on the ration
distributed to them monthly based on the number of the members of the households. The ration distributed to the refugees
has deficiency both in quantity and quality. As to the food supply indicators used in the survey, 25% of the children show
malnutrition problem, and children were diseased in malnutrition and related disorders. As to the result of this study, of all
the sample children in the refugee camp, prevalence of sever and moderate acute malnutrition were 7.5% and 18.5%. This
shows that the situation is critical in the camp. Mothers or caretakers reported that 32.5% of children 6-59 months of age had
been sick in the previous two weeks preceding the survey. Diarrhea disease was the most frequently reported illness, followed
by fever, acute respiratory infection, and malaria. The result of the crude mortality rate during this period was 1.25%. The
under-five mortality rate was also 0.77. The result of the bivariate analysis shows that there were seven variables found to have
statistically significant relationship with malnutrition in the refugee camp. Using the logistic regression of multivariate analysis
variables of disease (i.e. diarrhea and fever), age of the children and place of previous residence of the households were found
with statistically significant effect on malnutrition compare to the other variables. This shows that food insecurity and diseases
have high impact on malnutrition of the children. The effect of previous and present livelihood differences of the refugee
households based on the households’ previous place of residence was also affect to the resilience and adaptation capability of
the refugees for the different problems in the camp. Recommendations target the improvement of the food allocation in the
camp both in its variety and amount, the improvement and expansion of the therapeutic and supplementary feeding programs
and treating malnutrition related diseases have to emphasize in the camp. Furthermore, water sanitation and hygiene programs
have to expand to improve the ease of access and utilization of these services by the refugees.
Biography
Addisu Mengestie is a student at the Wollega University, Ethiopia. His experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries
for diverse fields of study.
Addisu Mengestie, J Exp Food Chem 2018, Volume: 4
DOI: 10.4172/2472-0542-C1-011