Determinants of nutritional status in south-west Uganda

In a cross-sectional survey carried out of 4320 children 0-59 months old in South-west Uganda various socio-economic and environmental factors were related to poor nutritional status. Diarrhoea was strongly associated with all the anthropometric parameters examined, suggesting a bidirectional influence of diarrhoea on malnutrition and of malnutrition on diarrhoea. The other most important variables independently associated with one or more anthropometric parameters were: distance from a health unit, living in a household not able to hire labour, and whose members worked on other people's land, religion, parental education, crowding conditions, sanitation, acreage, ownership of cow, father's occupation, birth order, ethnicity, and prolonged breastfeeding. This data indicates that a range of specific interventions are likely to be necessary for the improvement of nutrition in this community.