Assessing the Trend of Malnutrition among Children Under Five Years in West Gonja District, Ghana

Abstract

The research paper seeks to investigate the trend of malnutrition cases among children under five years in the West Gonja District. A cross-sectional survey approach was used to recruit respondents for primary results. Desktop analysis was used to collect secondary data that included opinions of other people on the field of study. 150 sample sizes were determined with a malnutrition prevalence rate of 200 percent and a margin of 5 percent error and a confidence interval of 95 per cent. Stratified sampling was employed. The primary and secondary data were analyzed using SPSS, R program, Minitab and Gretl. The responses were put into summary statistics, figures, one-way ANOVA, trend to facilitate successful discussion. Finding revealed that underweight of the children under five years can be described by quadratic trend and ARIMA(0,1,1). The findings further revealed that, there were significant difference among children weight categories but remain same across the various years from 2014 through 2019.The findings finally revealed that the malnutrition of the children under five years of age are likely to decrease drastically for next five years if the intervention program is effectively managed and maintained. The research paper concluded that the malnutrition of the children under five years of age likely to decrease drastically for next five years if the intervention program are effectively managed and maintained as indicated on the forecasted curve. The District Health Directory should deploy more Nurses for home monitoring in order to arrest the situation at stake.