Prevalence of malnutrition among settled pastoral Fulani children in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

BackgroundThere is a dearth of information on the health of pastoral Fulani children living in southwestern Nigeria. These are fully settled pastoralists whose economy are centred on cattle and farming. In other to monitor and plan appropriate nutritional intervention for their children, a cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the prevalence of malnutrition of pastoral Fulani children.FindingsFulani's children aged 6 months to 15 years, living in 61 settlements in Kwara, Ogun and Oyo States in Southwestern Nigeria participated in the study. Heights and weights of 164 girls and 167 boys were measured. Their anthropometric indices, height-for-age (HA), weight-for-height (WH), and weight-for-age (WA) Z-scores determined. The prevalence of stunting (HAZ < -2), wasting (WHZ < -2) and underweight (WAZ < -2) was 38.7%, 13.6%, and 38.7%, respectively when compared to the reference NCHS/WHO standard used for defining stunting, wasting and underweight. Boys were more malnourished than the girls were, but this was not significant (stunting: χ2 = 0.36; df = 1; P = 0.54); (underweight: χ2 = 1.10; df = 1; P = 0.29); and (wasting: χ2 = 0.00; df = 1; P = 0.98) The mean of Z-scores of Height-for-age, Weight-for-age and Weight-for-height in children were -1.502, -1.634 and -0.931 respectively. The SD was 1.52, 1.09 and 1.20 respectively. Using WHO Malnutrition Classification systems, 38.7% of the children were found to be malnourished.ConclusionThese results indicate high prevalence of malnutrition among settled pastoral Fulani children, possibly due to changes in food habits and lifestyle occasion by the transition from nomadic to sedentary living. We suggest the inclusion of Fulani's settlements in nutritional intervention for these areas.

Effects of a Cereal and Soy Dietary Formula on Rehabilitation of Undernourished Children at Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso

“…Other studies carried out on malnourished children with other foods, such as that [18] of Ekpo et al Abidoye and Nwachie, [19], and Kwena et al, [20]. With this study, in 8 weeks, the children have recovered 1700 grams or 30.36 grams/day, whereas, in the study by Simpore et al [4], children recuperated 20 grams/day.…”

Nutritional Taboos among the Fullas in Upper River Region, The Gambia

“…The respondents identified various types of food that were not to be eaten because it was believed that they could affect the newborns' health, prolong labour, or provoke other health problems to the mother (Table 1). The most mentioned were catfish (by 11 mothers), pepper [10], bread [9], bitter tomato [8], egg [7], and banana [6]. Other foods mentioned were millet [4], sorrel, partridges [3], groundnut, mango, baobab, beef, goat [2], salt, crocodile, warthog, squirrels, lime, and guinea fowl [1].…”

“…There is a gap in the literature on food taboos among the Fulla in The Gambia. In a different setting, in Nigeria, a high level of malnutrition-38.7%-was observed among settled Fulla children [9]. Poverty, lack of education, changes in migratory tendencies, and the survival of certain beliefs and taboos are all factors leading to malnutrition in Nigerian Fulla.…”

“…It is only recently that they are becoming increasingly sedentary and adopting other incomegenerating activities. The men have the role of cattle-breeding [9]. The women are responsible for upbringing the children and for the farm work and routine household chores.…”

“…Health education has been identified as one of the main components in strategies to promoting behavioural changes aiming to improve the nutrition status of mothers and children. Understanding food taboos among the Fulla, the purpose of this work, can inform the design of more efficient health education interventions targeting malnutrition in this definite cultural context [3,9].…”