Factors That Affect Child Growth Monitoring Programme Adherence

Assessment of growth is a single measurement that best defines the health & nutritional status of children. Malnutrition is an important public health problem in developing countries being indirectly responsible for a high proportion of deaths among children under 5 years. A cross-sectional retrospective study was carried out in Khwisero division, Western Kenya with the aim of establishing the nutritional status of children 6-24 months),the performance of the growth monitoring programme in this community against the laid down aims of the programme. Previous researches in this division has indicated that it had the highest prevalence of infant and child mortalities compared to other divisions. This book therefore provides the results of a research aimed at establishing the nutritional status of children, frequency of growth monitoring, in relation to various socio-economic characteristics of their caregivers. The analysis will help shed some light on the various factors that influence child growth monitoring programme adherence in developing countries and suggestions for improvements.