2030 Countdown to combating malnutrition in Burundi: comparison of proactive approaches for case detection and enrolment into treatment

Abstract

Background Burundi has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world, particularly chronic malnutrition, which affects 55% of all children <5 y of age. Although it rolled out a national treatment programme to combat all forms of malnutrition, enrolment of children remains difficult. In this study, we use observational data from two screening approaches to assess the effectiveness in detection and enrolment into treatment. Methods Individual data from each screening approach was classified as either acutely malnourished or normal and either chronically malnourished or normal using a cut-off z-score between −2 and 2. Results While the Global Acute Malnutrition rate for the community-based mass screening was 8.3% (95% CI 5.6 to 11), with 8% enrolled in treatment, that of clinic-based systematic screening was 14.1% (95% CI 12.2 to 16.1), 98% of which were enrolled in treatment. Clinic systematic screening was 1.82 times (OR, 95% CI 1.26 to 2.62, p<0.001) and 1.35 times (95% CI 1.09 to 1.68, p=0.06) more likely to detect acute and chronic malnutrition, respectively, than community-based mass screening. Conclusions Although different mechanisms are relevant to proactively detect cases, strengthening the health system to systematically screen children could yield the best results, as it remains the primary contact for the sicker population, who may be at risk of increased infection as a result of underlying malnutrition.

The Joint Effect of Maternal Marital Status and Type of Household Cooking Fuel on Child Nutritional Status in Sub-Saharan Africa: Analysis of Cross-Sectional Surveys on Children from 31 Countries

“…This indicates that the indicators of child nutritional status in Burundi were poorer than those of other countries in SSA. Previous studies have found a high prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight among children in Burundi [ 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Besides Burundi, the prevalence of wasting and underweight was highest in Burkina Faso and Chad.…”

Gender dynamics in the biofortified bean value chain in Burundi

“…This observation is important given that men and women participate at varying levels in bean production and marketing, and their active involvement can stimulate a more widespread adoption of newly released common bean varieties. For instance, in recent years, there has been much focus on breeding biofortified bean varieties to address the unending challenge of malnutrition in Burundi (Muroki et al, 2023; Odjidja et al, 2022). The breeding programs in Burundi have developed several biofortified bean varieties, including MAC44, RWV1129, RWV1272, NAKAJE, MAC70, MUHORO, RWR2154, and RWR2245 (Onyango et al, 2020).…”