Association between Socio-Demographic Factors, Adequacy of Breastfeeding Practices and Complementary Food for Children below 24 Months in Fako, South West Region of Cameroon

Tiepma Ngongang Eurydice Flore¹, Bernard Tiencheu^1*, Arrey Oben Ebob Ashu¹, Aduni Ufuan Achidi¹, Mbame Efeti Marie Clodine¹, Noel Tenyang², Boris Gabin Kingue Azantsa³

¹Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon
²Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, University of Maroua, Maroua, Cameroon
³Laboratory of Nutrition and Nutritional Biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Yaounde, Yaounde, Cameroon

Dr. Bernard Tiencheu, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.

Keywords: Malnutrition; Breastfeeding Practices; Socio-Demographic; Children; Stunting; Nutritional Status; Complementary Food

Abstract

Death and morbidity due to Protein Energy Malnutrition in infancy continue to scourge populations in developing countries, thus the aim of this study. A total of 123 children below 2 years of age were recruited in this descriptive cross-sectional study. Socio-demographic data and information on the different infant feeding habits were obtained by the use of semi-structured questionnaire. Nutritional status was assessed by using of anthropometric measurements. Data obtained was statistical analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. In terms of nutritional status, underweight was defined as a weight for age z-score less than 2 standard deviation SD below the mean, wasting as weight for length z-score less than 2 SD below the mean and stunting as length for age less than -2 SD. Out of the total 123 participants in the study population, just 27.6% of them were exclusively breastfed. In the study population, 87% of the participants had a family income of less than 50,000 frs CFA per month. The significant predictors of wasting were exclusive breastfeeding (p=0.017), number of times the baby eats fruits (p=0.047) and number of times feeding bottle is cleaned (p=0.023). Underweight had as predictor type of complementary food given (p=0.009) with the predictor of stunting being number of children at home (p=0.036). Further analysis revealed that a total of 82.1% of the children in the study population were malnourished.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).