Using participatory epidemiology to investigate women’s knowledge on the seasonality and causes of acute malnutrition in Karamoja, Uganda

The Karamoja region of northeast Uganda had been characterized by high levels of acute malnutrition (AM) for decades, despite substantial aid investment in nutrition programmes. Participatory epidemiology (PE) was used to understand the seasonality of child AM from the perspective of women agro-pastoralists and understand their knowledge and prioritization of the causes of child AM. Women provided highly plausible descriptions and analysis of monthly variations in the occurrence of AM, livelihood factors related to the temporal variation in AM occurrence, the root causes of AM and relationships between these causes. Overall, AM was strongly attributed to declining livestock ownership and access to cow milk and normalized gender discrimination. Monthly calendars revealed important monthly patterns in AM, births and women’s workload that had not been previously reported. There was significant agreement (p < 0.01) between independent women’s groups (n = 16) for the monthly calendars and causal diagrams, indicating strong reproducibility of the methods. Triangulation indicated good validity of the monthly calendar method. The PE approach demonstrated that agro-pastoralist women with limited formal education could describe and analyse the seasonality of AM and related factors and identify and prioritize the causes of AM. Indigenous knowledge should be valued and respected, and nutrition programmes should shift the emphasis towards far more participatory and community-based approaches. The timing of conventional nutrition surveys in agro-pastoral settings should be based on an understanding of the seasonality of livelihoods. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13570-023-00269-5.