ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DIETARY INTAKE, HEALTH STATUS AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS AMONG FAMILIES AND THEIR CHILDREN IN BARDERE CITY SOMALIA

Abstract Globally, 17 million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition due to deficiency of some nutrient foods with an estimated mortality rate of 1 to 2 million in Sub-Saharan Africa. In sub-Saharan African Countries, diets of children aged under-five years are commonly based on the calorie dense foods with minimal or no animal products and rarely do they have adequate intake of vegetables and fruits. According to horn of Africa Demographic Health Survey (2018), 44% of children under five of age in the southern region ofSomalia, dietary intake assessment was done by conducting a 24-hour dietary recall of the foods eaten by children and dietary diversity was evaluated using the WHO infant and young child feeding guidelines for that age group. Nutrient intake was determined by computing the foods consumed in terms of kilocaloriesand classifying them as adequate or inadequate. Anthropometric measurements were done on the children to determine their nutrition status. Excel version was used to manage and analyze the data, descriptive statistics were used to describe quantitative data while inferential statistics, tables and chi square was used to show associations between categorical variables; dietary diversity, intake and nutrition status and health status of children. Descriptive correlation data was used to determine the strength of association betweensocio-economic characteristics, dietary diversity and nutrition status. There was a significant relationship between socio economic status and dietary diversity score with a (p-value≤0.001). Consequently, the resultsshowed a significant relationship between dietary diversity and nutrition status Chi square (p-value≥0.002). Conclusively, the nutrition status indicated existence of under nutrition in the study area and this study recommends interventions such as nutrition education integrated with kitchen gardening for improved dietary diversity.