Relationship between Family Planning and Malnutrition in Children Aged 0-24 Months Admitted to the Nutritional Centers of the Hospital of the Liberty and the Mother and Child University Hospital Center of N'Djamena (Chad)

This study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the relationship between the age of first pregnancy, the birth interval, family size and severe acute malnutrition in children aged 0 to 24 months living in Ndjamena admitted to the nutritional centers of the Hospital of the Liberty and the Mother and Child University Hospital Center of N'Djamena. It is a descriptive cross-sectional study, based on a field survey. It allowed us to collect data from 103 mother-child during the period from March 14 to May 15, 2018. The sampling was random according to the malnourished children received in the two hospitals during the survey.

A Slater scale, a UNICEF measuring rod, a survey form, a 2006 WHO Z-Score table were used to collect anthropometric data from children and those relating to family planning. The data collected was processed and analyzed manually and then on a computer using Word, Excel, Sphinx and Stata software. A univariate and bivariate analysis of the data was done.

The results obtained revealed that severe acute malnutrition affects 74.76% of the children surveyed. Of this population, 58.25% have an interbirth interval ≤ 24 months, 61.03% come from households with at least 6 individuals and 73.79% were born to mothers aged ≤ 25 years. From this work, the statistical tests using the Chi-square showed a clear significance between the dependent variable, the nutritional status of the children and each of the independent variables, which underlie the hypotheses of the study (P<0.01). This made it possible to verify and confirm the main hypothesis of the study according to which "severe acute malnutrition in children aged 0 to 24 months is closely linked to short intervals between births, age at first birth and height of the family ".