Children born during the hunger season are at a higher risk of severe acute malnutrition: findings from a Guinea Sahelian ecological zone in Northern Ghana.
Children born during the hunger season are at a higher risk of severe acute malnutrition: findings from a Guinea Sahelian ecological zone in Northern Ghana.
Heightened food insecurity in the hunger season increases the risk of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in childhood. This study examined the association of season of birth with SAM in a Guinean Sahelian ecological zone. We analyzed routine health and sociodemographic surveillance data from the Navrongo Health and Sociodemographic Surveillance System collected between 2011 and 2018. January–June, the period of highest food insecurity, was defined as the hunger season. We defined moderate acute malnutrition as child mid‐upper arm circumference (MUAC) between 115 mm and 135 mm and SAM as MAUC ≤ 115 mm. We used adjusted logistic regression to quantify the association between the season of birth and SAM in children aged 6–35 months. From the 29,452 children studied, 24% had moderate acute malnutrition. Overall, 1.4% had SAM, with a higher prevalence (1.8%) in the hunger season of birth. Compared with those born October–December, adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for SAM were increased for children born in the hunger season: January–March (1.77 [1.31–2.39]) and April–June (1.92 [1.44–2.56]). Low birth weight, age at an assessment of nutritional status, and ethno‐linguistic group were also significantly associated with SAM in adjusted analyses. Our study established that being born in the hunger season is associated with a higher risk of severe acute malnutrition. The result implies improvement in the food supply to pregnant and lactating mothers through sustainable agriculture or food system change targeting the hunger season may reduce the burden of severe acute malnutrition.
Nonterah, Englebert A.
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Welaga, Paul
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Chatio, Samuel T.
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Kehoe, Sarah
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Ofosu, Winfred
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Ward, Kate
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Godfrey, Keith
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Oduro, Abraham R.
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Newell, Marie-Louise
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1 April 2022
Nonterah, Englebert A.
e1b54a1b-dd59-42ac-9886-0a60d490059d
Welaga, Paul
f4544a09-4e63-435d-8bb2-cbcea0b40589
Chatio, Samuel T.
9335e5cc-b71c-4366-9066-f9f2b487c000
Kehoe, Sarah
534e5729-632b-4b4f-8401-164d8c20aa26
Ofosu, Winfred
3cea117a-5829-4993-ae08-004b86c91f9f
Ward, Kate
39bd4db1-c948-4e32-930e-7bec8deb54c7
Godfrey, Keith
0931701e-fe2c-44b5-8f0d-ec5c7477a6fd
Oduro, Abraham R.
dd6fc6ff-5927-48bc-abfb-d572eb3da430
Newell, Marie-Louise
c6ff99dd-c23b-4fef-a846-a221fe2522b3
Nonterah, Englebert A., Welaga, Paul, Chatio, Samuel T., Kehoe, Sarah, Ofosu, Winfred, Ward, Kate, Godfrey, Keith, Oduro, Abraham R. and Newell, Marie-Louise
(2022)
Children born during the hunger season are at a higher risk of severe acute malnutrition: findings from a Guinea Sahelian ecological zone in Northern Ghana.
Maternal & Child Nutrition, 18 (2), [e13313].
(doi:10.1111/mcn.13313).
Abstract
Heightened food insecurity in the hunger season increases the risk of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in childhood. This study examined the association of season of birth with SAM in a Guinean Sahelian ecological zone. We analyzed routine health and sociodemographic surveillance data from the Navrongo Health and Sociodemographic Surveillance System collected between 2011 and 2018. January–June, the period of highest food insecurity, was defined as the hunger season. We defined moderate acute malnutrition as child mid‐upper arm circumference (MUAC) between 115 mm and 135 mm and SAM as MAUC ≤ 115 mm. We used adjusted logistic regression to quantify the association between the season of birth and SAM in children aged 6–35 months. From the 29,452 children studied, 24% had moderate acute malnutrition. Overall, 1.4% had SAM, with a higher prevalence (1.8%) in the hunger season of birth. Compared with those born October–December, adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for SAM were increased for children born in the hunger season: January–March (1.77 [1.31–2.39]) and April–June (1.92 [1.44–2.56]). Low birth weight, age at an assessment of nutritional status, and ethno‐linguistic group were also significantly associated with SAM in adjusted analyses. Our study established that being born in the hunger season is associated with a higher risk of severe acute malnutrition. The result implies improvement in the food supply to pregnant and lactating mothers through sustainable agriculture or food system change targeting the hunger season may reduce the burden of severe acute malnutrition.
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Maternal Child Nutrition - 2022 - Nonterah - Children born during the hunger season are at a higher risk of severe acute
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Accepted/In Press date: 10 December 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 January 2022
Published date: 1 April 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
We are grateful to the chiefs, elders and people from communities within the catchment of the Navrongo sociodemographic surveillance site. We acknowledge all the field workers and researchers of the Navrongo Health Research Centre who did due diligence with data collection, entry, quality control and extraction. We appreciate the support of all INPreP study team members from NHRC including: Edith Dambayi, Esmond Nonterah, Doreen Ayi‐Bisah, James Adoctor, Edna Kukuri and Paula Beeri. This work was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under grant 17\63\154 using UK aid from the UK Government to support global health research. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK Department of Health and Social Care. KMG is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12011/4), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR Senior Investigator (NF‐SI‐0515‐10042), NIHR Southampton 1000DaysPlus Global Nutrition Research Group (17/63/154) and NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (IS‐BRC‐1215‐20004)), the European Union (Erasmus+ Programme ImpENSA 598488‐EPP‐1‐2018‐1‐DE‐EPPKA2‐CBHE‐JP), the British Heart Foundation (RG/15/17/3174), and US National Institute On Aging of the National Institutes of Health (Award No. U24AG047867).
Funding Information:
We are grateful to the chiefs, elders and people from communities within the catchment of the Navrongo sociodemographic surveillance site. We acknowledge all the field workers and researchers of the Navrongo Health Research Centre who did due diligence with data collection, entry, quality control and extraction. We appreciate the support of all INPreP study team members from NHRC including: Edith Dambayi, Esmond Nonterah, Doreen Ayi-Bisah, James Adoctor, Edna Kukuri and Paula Beeri. This work was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under grant 17\63\154 using UK aid from the UK Government to support global health research. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK Department of Health and Social Care. KMG is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12011/4), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR Senior Investigator (NF-SI-0515-10042), NIHR Southampton 1000DaysPlus Global Nutrition Research Group (17/63/154) and NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (IS-BRC-1215-20004)), the European Union (Erasmus+ Programme ImpENSA 598488-EPP-1-2018-1-DE-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP), the British Heart Foundation (RG/15/17/3174), and US National Institute On Aging of the National Institutes of Health (Award No. U24AG047867).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Maternal & Child Nutrition published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 453083
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/453083
ISSN: 1740-8695
PURE UUID: 763002a2-88b9-4687-b592-42e4dd6831f1
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Date deposited: 07 Jan 2022 17:52
Last modified: 16 Apr 2024 01:47
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Contributors
Author:
Englebert A. Nonterah
Author:
Paul Welaga
Author:
Samuel T. Chatio
Author:
Winfred Ofosu
Author:
Abraham R. Oduro
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