Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Doctor of Public Health (DrPH)

School

Public Health

Advisor

Joseph Robare

Abstract

Malnutrition in children under 5 years remains an important public health challenge as it spurs child mortality and morbidity in developing countries, including Nigeria. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to explore the risk factors of malnutrition in children under 5 years of age in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Socioecological and health belief models were applied to examine risk factors of malnutrition among these children. This study used a secondary dataset of 1,235 participants obtained from Akwa Ibom State Demographic and Health Survey database. Pearson’s chi-square test and binary logistic regression were adopted for the analyses. The results showed a statistically significant relationship between household size (χ2 (3) = 9.344, p = 0.025), child’s gender (Wald (1) = 7.65, p < 0.05), breastfeeding type (Wald (2) = 12.154, p < 0.05), mothers’ socioeconomic status (SES; Wald (2) = 8.576, p < 0.05), education level (Wald (2) = 7.808, p < 0.05), and child malnutrition status. The estimated odds ratio (OR) favored a decrease in child malnutrition by nearly 44% (OR = 0.557, p < 0.05) in a male child compared with a female child. The estimated OR favored an increase in child malnutrition by nearly 121% (OR = 2.213, p < 0.05) for a child in Ikot Ekpene relative to Uyo. Estimated OR favored an increase in child malnutrition by nearly 32% (OR = 1.321, p > 0.05) for mothers in low SES relative to mothers in high SES. The results may promote positive social change by providing insight for healthcare practitioners in future practices, increased awareness for mothers and caregivers to improve population health outcomes, and the opportunity for legislators to develop policies that empower and create income-earning opportunities for the marginalized.

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