Assessment Of Nutritional Status Of Under Five Children In Sokoto North Local Government Area, Sokoto State

Background: Malnutrion is an imbalance between the intake of calorie and the body’s requirement. When the body’s requirement supersedes the intake, it is under nutrition and when the intake is more than the body’s requirement, it leads to overweight or obesity. Both instances are forms of malnutrition. The study aim to determine prevalence of under nutrition among the study subject , age variation in relation to under nutrition and compare results of malnutrition obtained from Mid-Upper-Arm circumference and other methods of determining Nutritional status (weight-for-Age and height-for-Age Materials and Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 112 under five children in Sokoto North LGA. Multi stage sampling technique was used for selection where 3 districts were randomly selected from the 11 districts in Sokoto North LGA, and 4 areas where the study was carried out were randomly selected from the 3 districts. Results: The prevalence of stunting was 53.6% among which 22.3% were mildly stunted , 15.3% were moderately stunted, and 16.1% were severely stunted. The prevalence of wasting was 53.6% of which 14.28% had Grade 1 wasting, 9.8% of the subjects were moderately wasted (grade 2), 12.5% were severely wasted(grade3) and 17% had very severe wasting. Majority of the children (80.4%) had suffered from one form of illness or the other. Mean of under 5 years Feeding practices showed that 98.2% were breastfed, 12.9% of those who breastfed were stopped abruptly, majority of the study subject were introduced to complementary feeding at 6 months of age (50.9%) and majority (79.4%) have received one form of immunization or the other. Determinants of malnutrition were maternal level of education, time of introduction of complementary feeding as well as the type, frequency and quality of food introduced, childhood illness, immunization status, parents’ occupation among others. Conclusion: The results showed that there is high prevalence of malnutrition among under-five children in Sokoto North Local Government Area of Sokoto State We recommended that mothers should be educated and encourage for exclusive breastfeeding