Rapid assessment of nutritional status among under five years of age in Jabal Awlia district; Khartoum state 2018

Malnutrition is a big issue in developing countries, which represents one of the major causes of mortality among children. Around 45% of deaths among children under five years of age are linked to undernutrition. This study aims to assess nutritional status in under 5 years children in Jabal Awlia locality in Khartoum state, and to determine the associated factors, using MUAC measurement as a growth indicator for wasting and undernutrition in general.
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses, or imbalance in a person`s intake of energy and/or nutrients. Malnutrition so addresses three broad various forms of conditions; undernutrition, micronutrients -related malnutrition & overweight. Undernutrition includes four forms these are wasting, stunting, underweight, and deficiencies in vitamins and minerals. Wasting is a low weight for height. It is useful because it usually indicates recent and severe weight loss because the person hasn't had enough food to eat and /or they have had an infectious disease such as diarrhea which results in weight loss.  Stunting is of low height for age resulting from chronic or recurrent undernutrition. The factors associated with stunting include; poor socioeconomic conditions, poor maternal nutrition, inappropriate child feeding, recurrent illnesses. Stunting generally affects children's physical and cognitive potential. Children with normal MUAC measurement (>125mm) were found to be 89.1% of the total sample, and which was associated with other findings in the factors that can attribute to the nutritional status. Individual well-being in the form of nutritional status can be directly observed as opposed to household well-being. This study can provide information that can be used for nutritional surveillance and programs that would target and focus more on populations most affected. Around 45% of deaths among children under five years of age are linked to undernutrition. These mostly occur in low and middle-income countries. In Sudan over one in  11 three children under five are short for their age (stunted ), and more than one in six are thin for their height (wasted) [3]. According to the ministry of health, some 2.2 million children suffer from wasting annually, out of which over 573000 suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM).