THOUSANDS of children under five years in Zimbabwe are chronically malnourished and stunted due to poor diet and inadequate maternal care, a new report released yesterday has revealed.
The study compiled by academics Anesu Marume, Moherndran Archary and Saagida Mahomed titled: Dietary patterns and childhood stunting in Zimbabwe, states that malnutrition continues to persist, posing long-term survival and development challenges for the southern African nation.
“Macro and micro-nutrient malnutrition have persisted among children below five years. Socio-economic inequalities have seen millions of children failing to grow within the expected optimal growth due to various factors notable being limited access to adequate nutrition, adverse living conditions, high morbidity, and inadequate maternal care,” the report read.
“A matched case-control study was conducted. Caregivers with children aged 6–59 months were asked to describe the diet their children had consumed in the previous seven days using a food frequency questionnaire. Dietary patterns were developed using factor analysis and regression analysis was conducted to assess which dietary pattern was associated with childhood stunting.
“Three dietary patterns were identified: modern (n = 181), low animal-source (n = 158), and traditional (n = 111). Children with the low animal source dietary pattern had increased odds of being stunted. Three demographic factors were identified as significant predictors of consumption of any of the traditional and low animal source diets,” the report further read.
The research said there was need for nutrition intervention such as health education and improvement of dietary patterns for children.
“Nutrition intervention such as health education, counselling and supplementary feeding should include a holistic approach to dietary education; not only focusing on promoting a balanced diet, but strengthening the upgrading of a child's dietary pattern taking into account both quantity and quality of nutrients provided to the child,” the report added.
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