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Undernutrition in older children and adolescents in peri-urban Zambia
BACKGROUND: Adolescents make up roughly a quarter of the population in Zambia; however, most nutrition-related programming is targeted at the under-five population. Understanding the scale of undernutrition in older children and adolescents is fundamental to alleviating food insecurity and addressin...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10562011/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37818292 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1251768 |
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author | Sridhar, Shela Kang, Janella S. Madzorera, Isabel Zulu, Ethan Makasa, Joyce Cross, Sally Bell Hamer, Davidson H. |
author_facet | Sridhar, Shela Kang, Janella S. Madzorera, Isabel Zulu, Ethan Makasa, Joyce Cross, Sally Bell Hamer, Davidson H. |
author_sort | Sridhar, Shela |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Adolescents make up roughly a quarter of the population in Zambia; however, most nutrition-related programming is targeted at the under-five population. Understanding the scale of undernutrition in older children and adolescents is fundamental to alleviating food insecurity and addressing undernutrition across all age groups. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was performed in four low-income, peri-urban compounds in Chilanga District which included anthropometric measurements of children between ages 6 months-19 years and a household-level diet diversity and food security questionnaire. Wasting was used for children under 5 and thinness for children 5–19 years. Descriptive analysis and multivariate logistic regression were conducted to quantify the prevalence and distribution of malnutrition and understand the impact of food security. RESULTS: We surveyed 393 households and 1,004 children between the ages of 6 months and 19 years. Children aged 6–9 years had the highest prevalence of severe thinness (5.2%) and adolescents (10–19 years) had the highest rates of moderate thinness (6.5%). Across all age groups, more than 75% of children were in households that worried about running out of food in the previous month. 24.9% of adolescents and 28.4% of older children were in households were more likely to go a whole day without eating compared to 16.9% of children under 5. CONCLUSION: Our survey indicated that malnutrition in adolescents and older children living in Chilanga district was comparable to those under 5. Interventions to address undernutrition must be targeted at older children and adolescents in order to ameliorate this burden. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10562011 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-105620112023-10-10 Undernutrition in older children and adolescents in peri-urban Zambia Sridhar, Shela Kang, Janella S. Madzorera, Isabel Zulu, Ethan Makasa, Joyce Cross, Sally Bell Hamer, Davidson H. Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: Adolescents make up roughly a quarter of the population in Zambia; however, most nutrition-related programming is targeted at the under-five population. Understanding the scale of undernutrition in older children and adolescents is fundamental to alleviating food insecurity and addressing undernutrition across all age groups. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was performed in four low-income, peri-urban compounds in Chilanga District which included anthropometric measurements of children between ages 6 months-19 years and a household-level diet diversity and food security questionnaire. Wasting was used for children under 5 and thinness for children 5–19 years. Descriptive analysis and multivariate logistic regression were conducted to quantify the prevalence and distribution of malnutrition and understand the impact of food security. RESULTS: We surveyed 393 households and 1,004 children between the ages of 6 months and 19 years. Children aged 6–9 years had the highest prevalence of severe thinness (5.2%) and adolescents (10–19 years) had the highest rates of moderate thinness (6.5%). Across all age groups, more than 75% of children were in households that worried about running out of food in the previous month. 24.9% of adolescents and 28.4% of older children were in households were more likely to go a whole day without eating compared to 16.9% of children under 5. CONCLUSION: Our survey indicated that malnutrition in adolescents and older children living in Chilanga district was comparable to those under 5. Interventions to address undernutrition must be targeted at older children and adolescents in order to ameliorate this burden. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC10562011/ /pubmed/37818292 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1251768 Text en Copyright © 2023 Sridhar, Kang, Madzorera, Zulu, Makasa, Cross and Hamer. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Public Health Sridhar, Shela Kang, Janella S. Madzorera, Isabel Zulu, Ethan Makasa, Joyce Cross, Sally Bell Hamer, Davidson H. Undernutrition in older children and adolescents in peri-urban Zambia |
title | Undernutrition in older children and adolescents in peri-urban Zambia |
title_full | Undernutrition in older children and adolescents in peri-urban Zambia |
title_fullStr | Undernutrition in older children and adolescents in peri-urban Zambia |
title_full_unstemmed | Undernutrition in older children and adolescents in peri-urban Zambia |
title_short | Undernutrition in older children and adolescents in peri-urban Zambia |
title_sort | undernutrition in older children and adolescents in peri-urban zambia |
topic | Public Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10562011/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37818292 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1251768 |
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