Assessing the capacity of village health team workers in early screening of acute malnutrition in children under five years in Kabonero Subcounty, Bunyangabu district, Uganda

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the capacity of village health workers in early screening of acute malnutrition in children under five years in Kabonero sub-county, Bunyangabu district. The specific objectives of the study were; 1) To establish how early screening of acute malnutrition is done, 2) to assess the knowledge of village health team workers, 3) to find out the nutrition related activities done by village health team workers in Kabonero sub-county, Bunyangabu district, and 4) to find out the challenges faced by village health team workers in early screening of acute malnutrition in children under five years in Kabonero sub-county, Bunyangabu district. The study applied descriptive case study design to collect data from a sample size of 96 VHTs using questionnaires. The data was quantitatively analyzed using SPSS V15.0. The study findings indicated that; the anthropometric tools used by VHTs are; weighing scale, MUAC tape, height/length board 8 and the least 5 others who uses the tape measure. The highest number of the VHTs knew about early screening of acute malnutrition in children under five years and the least did not know. The factors considered in early screening of children for malnutrition were, age, weight, sex, height and others consider physical appearance and growth rate of the child while screening for malnutrition. The Nutrition related activities done by village health team workers in Kabonero sub-county, Bunyangabu district are; encouraged parents to feed their children on a balanced diet, educating parents on making a nutritional plan for their children, promoting exclusive breast feeding among mothers for at least 2 years and encouraging sanitation and clean food preparation practices among parents. The Challenges faced by village health team workers in early screening of acute malnutrition in children under five years were; lack of transport, limited motivation, low literacy levels and limited essential nutritional commodities. However negative community attitude, inadequate skills and training and limited political support were the least challenges faced by VHTs. The study concluded that the VHTs had the capacity to screen children under five years for malnutrition. The study therefore recommended that further studies should be done covering the whole country to identify the overall capacity of VHTs in screening of malnutrition to aid government nutritional policy formulation and implementation