Association Between Paternal Illicit Alcohol Consumption, Complementary Feeding And Nutrition Status Of Children Aged 6-23 Months In Kirinyaga County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The use of illicit alcohol has increased in Kenya. Illicit alcohol is cheap, readily available and stored under unhygienic conditions despite the Alcoholic and Drinks Act (ADA) of 2010, which seeks to protect drinker‟s health and control drinking hours. In Kenya there has been an increase in illicit alcohol consumption from 3.8% in 2007 to 4.2% in 2012. Excessive use of illicit alcohol can result in sub-optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) as resources may be directed to illicit alcohol purchases thus limiting those directed to food. There is limited evidence on the relationship between paternal consumption of illicit alcohol in relation to complementary feeding practices and nutrition status. The study therefore investigated association between paternal illicit alcohol consumption, complementary feeding and nutrition status of children aged 6-23 months in Mwea-East Sub-County, Kirinyaga County. The study adopted a cross-sectional analytical design with a sample of 239 fathers/caregivers with children 6-23 months of age. Simple random sampling technique was used to select households with children 6-23 months of age in which fathers consumed illicit alcohol. Data was collected using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Weight and length measurements were used to assess the nutrition status based on weight and length indices. Overall, under nutrition was high among children: Wasting (6.1%, 95% CI 4.8-7.0); stunting (12.6% 95 CI 8.9-17.5) and underweight (10.4% 95% CI 7.1-15.1) respectively. The minimum meal frequency was attained by 93.5%, minimum dietary diversity was attained by (86.1%), while minimum acceptable diet was attained by 85.2%. Data on anthropometry was analyzed using ENA for SMART software version 2010 then exported to SPSS version 22 for cross analysis with other variables, while Nutri survey was used for dietary data. The World Health Organization growth standards and z-score cut off points were used to establish nutrition status of the children. Descriptive statistics were used to describe socio-economic, socio-demographic characteristics and complementary feeding practices of the study population. The study found that 86.1% of the households were male headed, 71.7% were casual workers while father‟s food expenditure per day was low. Chi-square was used to test for association between categorical variables such as nutrition status and mode of feeding. Statistical significance was set at p< 0.05. There was an association between food expenditure and dietary diversity (p