Abstract

Malnutrition in children under five years still remains a major public health concern throughout the developing world, particularly in Africa contributing to 54% of deaths among children under five years. The effects of malnutrition in children under the age of 5 years include overweight, underweight, stunting, wasting with or without oedema and even death. For many decades, the only effective treatment for children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) was based primarily on inpatient care.

The treatment approach however changed with the introduction of the community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) where a ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) is used. The wide-ranging, quality acute malnutrition treatment health care services are important for promoting and maintaining under-five child health, preventing, and managing hasty recent weight loss and growth faltering morbidity and premature death.

Problem Statement: Globally, about 55 million children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, 19 million of these suffer from a severe type of severe acute malnutrition and every year 3.1 million children die of malnutrition. Malnutrition does not only account for more than half of child mortality but also the long-term effects on their cognitive development and economic growth.

The objective of the study is to determine the barriers to the management of malnutrition in children below five years in the Adamawa Region.

A descriptive and cross-sectional study design was used in this study. Health care workers and community health workers were administered questionnaires to assess their knowledge and challenges faced in managing malnutrition. Questionnaires were equally administered to care givers who could read and write while focus group discussion/interview was carried out on care givers of children below five years who cannot read and write, to assess their knowledge on causes, prevention and their perception on management of malnutrition

Parents faced lack of health-seeking behaviours: lack of awareness, perceptions of illness behaviours, poverty, workload, and traditional beliefs; poor infrastructures and difficult geographical setup, the travel distance, inaccessibility of the service, the lack of organized treatment facility, lack of sustainable interventions, lack of skilled and committed worker, lack of health worker training, discontinuity of stock supply were identified as the barrier for early prevention/dectection and treatment of under-5 child acute malnutrition.

The health education and promotion on social behavior change communication (SBCC) had to be strengthened, and monitored along with health workers’ skill development and successive training. There should be strong and close monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of the service provision and inter-sectoral collaborations among different sectors.

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