Nutrition News for Africa

Abstract - April 30, 2006

A survey by Kikafunda and Namusoke was published in the African Journal of Food, Agriculture Nutrition and Development (Volume 6 No. 1 2006) entitled Nutritonal Status of HIV/AIDS Orphaned Children in Households Headed by the Elderly in Rakai District, South Western Uganda).

Background. In Uganda, approximately 38% of children below five years of age are chronically malnourished, or stunted, with 23-26% underweight and 3-4% wasted. Factors that have contributed to this malnutrition include food insecurity, HIV/AIDS, poverty, poor health and poor economic status among others. Rakai District in south western Uganda has been hit greatly by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and there are more than 10 000 orphans that have resulted from this crisis.

Aim: The primary objective of this survey was to assess the extent to which HIV/AIDS has led to malnutrition in children in Rakai District.

Methods. Lutheran World Federation – Rakai Community Based AIDS Project (LWF-RACOBAP), an NGO in the area, helped identify families in which children who had lost both parents (orphans) to AIDS lived. In addition, they provided research assistants to help with the survey. The purposive sampling technique was used to identify a sample of 100 homes headed by elderly caretakers (HHE) who were primarily grandparents taking care of orphaned children and 50 homes headed by both parents (HHP). Females made up more than 50% in both the groups. In each household, a single child under 10 was randomly picked for anthropometric measurements from which weight-for-age was calculated. Participants for the survey gave verbal consent. In addition, a questionnaire was administered to participants that focused on socio-demographic characteristics. Epi-INFO and SPSS were used to analyse the data.

Results. In the study or HHE group, all the respondents were above 50 years of age; in the comparison group (HHP), a large number of the respondents (24%) was 30-34- age range, and none were above 50 years old. The HHE group was largely uneducated, while most of the respondents of the HHP group had primary education. In the HHE group, underweight among children was an alarming 47%; that in the HHP group was 28%. In addition in the HHE group, the older a child became, the more malnourished they were. This trend was reversed in the HHP group. Other factors that contributed to poor child nutritional status include the quality and quantity of food given to them, the marital status of the caretakers and the education and income levels of the caretakers.

Discussion. The higher malnutrition levels in the HHE group were partly attributable to the illiteracy levels of this group. The authors explain that illiterate caretakers find it difficult to adopt improved feeding practices.

Conclusion. HIV/AIDS orphaned children below 10 years of age living with their elderly grand parents are highly malnourished. The health and well being of elderly caretakers needs to be considered in efforts to address orphan care in the face of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.