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A Review of Selected Studies on the Factors Associated with the Nutrition Status of Children Under the Age of Five Years in South Africa

Malnutrition is a considerable contributor to child mortality and morbidity. Child malnutrition further affects the country’s economic development. Child malnutrition in South Africa is persistent, continuing to be an alarming burden. The nutritional status of kids under the age of five years is a c...

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Autores principales: Mkhize, Mbalenhle, Sibanda, Melusi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7662515/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33142965
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217973
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author Mkhize, Mbalenhle
Sibanda, Melusi
author_facet Mkhize, Mbalenhle
Sibanda, Melusi
author_sort Mkhize, Mbalenhle
collection PubMed
description Malnutrition is a considerable contributor to child mortality and morbidity. Child malnutrition further affects the country’s economic development. Child malnutrition in South Africa is persistent, continuing to be an alarming burden. The nutritional status of kids under the age of five years is a critical indicator of the country’s economic condition and health status. An understanding of the influencers of the nutritional status of children can act as a catalyst in combatting all forms of malnutrition. The purpose of this paper was to review selected studies concerning the factors that affect the nutritional status of children in South Africa. Studies were selected from electronic databases, which were PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Sabinet African Journals, and the University of Zululand library catalog. The keywords that were used to search studies and articles from the selected database were: risk factors, child nutritional status, children under the age of five years, South Africa, malnutrition, underweight, stunted, wasting, and over-nutrition. Studies and surveys published from 2010–2019 that reported on the factors influencing the nutritional status of children under the age of five years were included in this review. Twenty-seven articles met the inclusion criteria of the study. The 27 articles were made up of 21 cross-sectional articles and six longitudinal articles. The finding from this review highlights that there is a lack of studies conducted in urban areas. The results show that the nutritional status of children is affected by several factors. These include household food insecurity, low household income, illiterate caregivers, unemployment, inadequate dietary intake, low birth weight, consumption of monotonous diets, poor caregiver’s nutritional knowledge, poor access to water and sanitation, poor weaning practices, age of the caregiver, and demographic characteristics of a child (age and gender). It is critical to have an understanding of the factors that affect the nutritional status of children. Such knowledge can significantly contribute to formulating policies that can enhance nutrition security and the country’s economy. Moreover, insights into strategic interventions to eradicate all forms of malnutrition can be made.
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spelling pubmed-76625152020-11-14 A Review of Selected Studies on the Factors Associated with the Nutrition Status of Children Under the Age of Five Years in South Africa Mkhize, Mbalenhle Sibanda, Melusi Int J Environ Res Public Health Review Malnutrition is a considerable contributor to child mortality and morbidity. Child malnutrition further affects the country’s economic development. Child malnutrition in South Africa is persistent, continuing to be an alarming burden. The nutritional status of kids under the age of five years is a critical indicator of the country’s economic condition and health status. An understanding of the influencers of the nutritional status of children can act as a catalyst in combatting all forms of malnutrition. The purpose of this paper was to review selected studies concerning the factors that affect the nutritional status of children in South Africa. Studies were selected from electronic databases, which were PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Sabinet African Journals, and the University of Zululand library catalog. The keywords that were used to search studies and articles from the selected database were: risk factors, child nutritional status, children under the age of five years, South Africa, malnutrition, underweight, stunted, wasting, and over-nutrition. Studies and surveys published from 2010–2019 that reported on the factors influencing the nutritional status of children under the age of five years were included in this review. Twenty-seven articles met the inclusion criteria of the study. The 27 articles were made up of 21 cross-sectional articles and six longitudinal articles. The finding from this review highlights that there is a lack of studies conducted in urban areas. The results show that the nutritional status of children is affected by several factors. These include household food insecurity, low household income, illiterate caregivers, unemployment, inadequate dietary intake, low birth weight, consumption of monotonous diets, poor caregiver’s nutritional knowledge, poor access to water and sanitation, poor weaning practices, age of the caregiver, and demographic characteristics of a child (age and gender). It is critical to have an understanding of the factors that affect the nutritional status of children. Such knowledge can significantly contribute to formulating policies that can enhance nutrition security and the country’s economy. Moreover, insights into strategic interventions to eradicate all forms of malnutrition can be made. MDPI 2020-10-30 2020-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7662515/ /pubmed/33142965 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217973 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Mkhize, Mbalenhle
Sibanda, Melusi
A Review of Selected Studies on the Factors Associated with the Nutrition Status of Children Under the Age of Five Years in South Africa
title A Review of Selected Studies on the Factors Associated with the Nutrition Status of Children Under the Age of Five Years in South Africa
title_full A Review of Selected Studies on the Factors Associated with the Nutrition Status of Children Under the Age of Five Years in South Africa
title_fullStr A Review of Selected Studies on the Factors Associated with the Nutrition Status of Children Under the Age of Five Years in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed A Review of Selected Studies on the Factors Associated with the Nutrition Status of Children Under the Age of Five Years in South Africa
title_short A Review of Selected Studies on the Factors Associated with the Nutrition Status of Children Under the Age of Five Years in South Africa
title_sort review of selected studies on the factors associated with the nutrition status of children under the age of five years in south africa
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7662515/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33142965
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217973
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