Overweight in children: An unexpected outcome by trained community health workers in a rural setting in Kisumu County, Kenya

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Caroline J Sawe, Grace A K Ettyang, CO Kimamo and W Kogi-Makau

University of Nairobi, Kenya
Moi University, Kenya

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Abstract

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Globally, an estimated 19 million children are malnourished. There has been a rapid increase in childhood overweight in low and middle income countries and is no longer associated with socio economic elite. It predisposes individuals to adulthood obesity, psychological morbidity and increases the prevalence of non-communicable diseases. Community Health Workers have shown to improve nutritional outcomes amongst disadvantaged population. In Kisumu County, Kenya, CHWs were trained and implemented the nutrition intervention through home visits. Visits targeted young children when key nutrition messages were most relevant during growth and enable caregivers to make best possible choices. This study assessed the effect of the nutrition intervention on 101 children aged below two years before and after the intervention. Child weight was collected and Weight for Age Z-scores calculated based on WHO Z-scores. The mean age of children was 11.84 months, weight 8.6kg and 51(50.5%) were females. The prevalence of moderate overweight and severely overweight increased to 10.89% and 4.95% after the intervention from 3.79% and 3.01% before the intervention (chi2= 21.54, p<0.001). After controlling for confounders, exclusive breastfeeding was associated with overweight in children (chi2=27.13, p<0.04). In conclusion, CHWs failed to reduce the prevalence of overweight amongst children and status of exclusive breastfeeding was highly associated with childhood overweight. It was evident that overweight is crippling in rural poor areas and is a public health issue that needs urgent nutrition attention. Nutrition interventions should focus on children of ages less than two years and promotion of exclusive breastfeeding be encouraged so as to avert the negative consequences associated with overweight in later years of life.

Biography

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Caroline J Sawe is a Lecturer at Moi University, Kenya. She teaches Human Nutrition. She is a PhD student at University of Nairobi Kenya in Applied Human Nutrition. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health (Moi University, Kenya), Bachelors of Sciences degree in Foods Nutrition and Dietetics (Egerton University, Kenya). Prior to joining Moi University, she worked at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Eldoret as a Nutrition Office and an HIV nutrition research project. She believes research is the most important service she can provide to her poor community because it is only opportunity she can help a generation function knowledgeably in a society where rapid technological advances constantly pose new questions and ethical challenges.

Email: csawe@cartafrica.org