EPIDEMIOLOGY OF PROTEIN ENERGY MALNUTRITION AMONG CHILDREN UNDER FIVE YEARS OF AGE AT (MANDELA) DISPLACED CAMP, KHARTOUM

*Ibtehag Mahgoub Mubarak, Mohamed Osman Elamin, Fowzi Omer Elamin and Walid Adam Eltahir

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted at Mandela camp for displaced people in Khartoum state. 403 children were randomly selected from 315 families during the period from 5-1-2004 to 15-2-2004.The study provides many essential results from which PEM was found to be very high in the area among children below five years of age and it was attributed to the low level of education of parents in the area and also to the large family sizes which dominant in the study area. The study also revealed many other factors that were having a role in such high prevalence of PEM either directly or indirectly, these included: in sanitary environmental conditions, poor family income, inadequate water supply, poor personal hygiene of the mothers; insufficient health services, poor nutritional education. As a result, there were many unhealthy practices as using of bottle-feeding, delay in starting breast-feeding; early or too late introduction of complementary foods, some sorts of food taboos and wrong food habits and beliefs.

Keywords: Malnutrition, Mandela camp, children.