August 2015 Vol. 3 No. 8

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Original Research Article

Dietary habits and the nutritional status of children aged 1-5 years in Mambu Bafut, North West Region, Cameroon

Ebai Nee Besong Patricia Ange* and Evelyne Ngum

Department of Home Economics, ENSET, Douala University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon

*Corresponding Author's Email: ebaipat@yahoo.com

Accepted August 06, 2015

Abstract

The main thrust of this study was to investigate the dietary habit and the nutritional status of children aged 1-5 years in Mambu Bafut. To give the study its direction two research objectives and one hypothesis was formulated. The objectives were meant to assess the types of foods eaten by children aged 1-5years in Mambu Bafut and to determine the relationship that exists between dietary habits, morbidity and mortality rates of children aged 1-5 years in Mambu Bafut. Survey research design was adopted for this study. A sample of 100 children aged 1-5 years were used for the study. A well validated structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics while Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to test the lone hypothesis. The findings revealed that the dietary habits of children aged 1-5 years in Mambu Bafut were lightly good but special considerations has to be made if the nutritional status of children has to be improved tremendously. The finding equally indicated that there exist a significant relationship between dietary habit and morbidity and mortality rate. The study therefore recommended that people should be made to know the factors that influence dietary habits, the causes of high rates of morbidity and mortality of children aged 1-5 years. Parents of this locality should be taught how to formulate balance diets from local foods.

Keywords: Dietary habit, morbidity, mortality rate, nutritional status