IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/ajfand/340760.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Feeding Patterns And Dietary Diversity Practices Of Caregivers With Children (0 To 24 Months) Admitted With Acute Malnutrition In Hospitals In Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Mhlanga, TPN
  • Manafe, M
  • Ncube, LJ

Abstract

Malnutrition is a global public health problem more prominent among infants under five years of age, and South Africa is no exception. Caregivers’ poor infant feeding practices, including lower exclusive breastfeeding rates, dietary diversity, and meal frequency, are the main causes of malnutrition during the first two years of life. Improving mother practices on infant and young children is crucial for growth and development and prevention of malnutrition. This study aimed to assess feeding patterns and dietary diversity practices of caregivers with children admitted with malnutrition in hospitals in Bushbuckridge Sub-District, Mpumalanga Province. A quantitative study design was applied. Data were collected among 151 caregiverchild pairs using an interviewer-administered questionnaire adapted from the Food Agriculture Organization publication guidelines for assessing nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes and practices using closed-ended multiple choice questions. Descriptive and ANOVA statistics were analysed using STATA 13 statistical software. The results showed that the majority, 90.0% (n=66) of infants < 6 months, were not exclusively breastfed. Most, 34.6% (n= 27) of the children aged 6-24 months had a lower dietary diversity score (DDS) (<5) and 65.0% (n=51) consumed less than the recommended meals for age (4 times a day). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the effect of continuing breastfeeding was significant for gender [F (1, 71) = 3.90, p=.05] and the diagnosis of the child [F (1, 71) = 8.19, p = .00]. The effect of minimum feeding frequency was significant for residence areas (F (3,74) = 5.23, p =.00) and caregiver education levels [F (3, 74) =3.71, p = .01]. The findings indicated that the majority (90.0%) of mothers did not practise exclusive breastfeeding, the diet lacked diversity, and the children consumed meals less than 4 times a day as recommended for age. Therefore, there is need for targeted infant feeding nutrition interventions, such as nutrition education and promotion of breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices, which will subsequently lead to an improvement of the nutritional status of infants

Suggested Citation

  • Mhlanga, TPN & Manafe, M & Ncube, LJ, 2023. "Feeding Patterns And Dietary Diversity Practices Of Caregivers With Children (0 To 24 Months) Admitted With Acute Malnutrition In Hospitals In Mpumalanga Province, South Africa," African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND), African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND), vol. 23(9), September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ajfand:340760
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.340760
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/340760/files/Mhlanga.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.340760?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ghosh, Pritam & Rohatgi, Pratima & Bose, Kaushik, 2022. "Determinants of time-trends in exclusivity and continuation of breastfeeding in India: An investigation from the National Family Health Survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ghosh, Pritam, 2023. "Determinants and transition of anaemia among under-five children from different social groups in India from 2005–06 to 2015-16," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ajfand:340760. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ajfand.net/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.