Children under the age of five in the Western Cape carry a double burden of malnutrition: stunting and obesity..
While the levels of stunting are lower than in the rest of the country, it is still a concern, and obesity levels in the province represent a “very high public health concern”.
This is according to the recently released Western Cape Stunting Baseline Survey (WCSBS) report led by principal investigator, Emeritus Professor Marjanne Senekal, a UCT human nutrition expert.
Commissioned by the provincial Department of Health and co-funded by the DG Murray Trust, the survey investigated malnutrition and the risk factors for children under five years.
Working under a deadline period of six months, with data collected between June 4 and October 22, 2022, Senekal and her team used a rigorous sampling structure: a sample of 1 214 under-five year-olds that was representative of children living in the province’s formal, urban formal and rural towns, and across the income spectrum. The expert panel developed the questionnaire specifically for this study.
The stunting prevalence level of 17.5% is 5.4% in the province was found to be lower than the 22.9% previously reported for under-five-year-olds in the Western Cape. Stunting refers to the effects of chronic undernutrition and obesity.
“This reflects a welcome declining trend over the past six years, even with the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Senekal. “However, the evidence of stunting was most prevalent in the very vulnerable under-two-year-olds (19.7%), representing a high public health concern which needs ongoing attention in the form of targeted interventions.”
The researchers found an overweight/obesity prevalence of 15.1%, representing a very high public health concern.
Almost one in five of the sample had a birth weight below 2.5 kg, while dietary diversity was found to be poor, especially in older children; as is diet quality.
Crisps and sweets featured in the top five foods consumed by children older than six months.
In terms of undernutrition, a spread of risk factors coalesces to create conditions ripe for stunting. Significant predictors of stunting that were identified include incomplete immunisation status, low birth weight, food insecurity (“ran out of money to buy food in the past month”), low wealth index (wealth status and assets), low care index (care/caregiver capacity) and low wash index (quality of water, sanitation and household hygiene).
The key risk factor for overweight across all the age groups was having an overweight/obese caregiver, who was most often the child’s mother (71%). Almost a quarter of the mothers (22.3%) were overweight, and 36.8% were obese.
“This result emphasises the importance of tackling the problem of obesity at all levels in our society,” said Senekal. “It is not just a question of genetics that is at stake here, but a lifestyle of inactivity and energy-dense food choices that is instilled in children from an early age.”
Cape Times