15May 2017

INCIDENCE OF NUTRITIONAL HEALTH ASSOCIATED DISEASES AMONGST CHILDREN IN THE HEALTH DISTRICT OF ABONG MBANG, CAMEROON.

  • Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Dschang, Cameroon.
  • Under Privileged Children and Women Assistance (UPCAWA), Cameroon.
  • Discipline of Public Health Medicine, Department of Nursing & Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
  • District Health Service of AbongMbang, Cameroon.
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Introduction: Despite the prevalence of malnutrition in developing countries, it is rarely given the attention it deserves as one of the leading cause of infant morbido-mortality. Rather diseases like diarrheal diseases, malaria and other communicable diseases are given more attention while forgetting the underlying role of malnutrition in the deterioration of the health status of these children. The objective of this study was thus to determine the incidence of nutritional health associated health problems which include diarrhoea, malaria and anemia with respect to space and time as well as their correlations to malnutrition in the context of AbongMbang. Methods: This study was carried out in the Health District of AbongMbang determining the incidence of nutritional health associated diseases amongst children using data from monthly activity reports collected from January 2015 through June 2016. The correlations between each disease and malnutrition were also calculated setting significance set at 5%. Results: The results showed a significant increase in the reported incidence of the above health problems between 2015 and 2016. We also noted higher incidences in AbongMbang Centre, AbongMbangSud and Mbomba Health Areas. Malnutrition had a moderate degree of correlation with diarrhoea though there was no compelling evidence of that correlation being real and not due to chance; with R-square and p-value of 0.415 and 0.167 respectively. Conclusion: There was a significant increase in the reported incidence of the above health problems amongst children in AbongMbang. Although there was no compelling evidence of real correlation between malnutrition and diarrhoea, there is need for further research to determine etiological relationships between the two in the context of the Health District of AbongMbang.

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[Samuel Nambile. Cumber, Jackson Jr N. Ndenkeh, Joyce Mahlako Tsoka-Gwegweni and Joseph Noupoue. (2017); INCIDENCE OF NUTRITIONAL HEALTH ASSOCIATED DISEASES AMONGST CHILDREN IN THE HEALTH DISTRICT OF ABONG MBANG, CAMEROON. Int. J. of Adv. Res. 5 (May). 64-70] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com

Samuel Nambile Cumber
Discipline of Public Health Medicine, Department of Nursing & Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

DOI:

Article DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/4079      
DOI URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/4079

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