Five-year review on prevalence of stunting among children under five years in Savannah Region, Ghana

Introduction: Undernutrition, specifically stunting, continues to be a major public health concern, especially in Africa and Asia. The World Health Organization targets a 40% reduction in stunting by 2025. However, there has been no known scholarly work to assess the stunting situation in the Savannah Region in line with the WHO’s target. This study described the trends and geographical distribution of stunting among children under five in the Savannah region of Ghana from 2017 to 2021. Method: A cross-sectional prevalence study was conducted to analyze secondary data on stunting from routine service provision from 2017-2021. Data extracted from the District Health Information Management Systems version 2 was cleaned and analyzed with Microsoft Excel version 2021 and ArcMap version 10.3. Proportions were calculated and the results were presented as tables, charts, and geospatial maps. Results: The proportion of children under five measured for stunting increased from 14.6% (14,694/100,417) in 2017 to 70.7% (92,309/130,653) in 2021. Over the period, the prevalence of stunting among children under five was 1.1% (2591/246691). There was a decreasing trend in the prevalence of stunting from 1.80% (265/14,694) in 2017 to 0.85% (782/92309) in 2021. The West Gonja, Central Gonja, and North-East Gonja districts recorded the highest prevalence of stunting while the East Gonja municipality recorded the lowest prevalence. Conclusion: The prevalence of stunting in this study was very low compared to the global and national prevalence. A decreasing trend was observed over the period. Measures should be put in place to ensure all stunting cases are detected early.