Abstract

Globally, approximately 151 million children under 5 suffer from stunting and in 2017, nearly 51 million children
under 5 were wasted. In Uganda, child malnutrition is one of the most serious public health problems and among
the highest in the world with about 28.9% stunted and 3.6 % wasted in 2015. Therefore, the purpose of this study
was to identify prevalence of malnutrition and determine the associated factors that influence malnutrition among
children under the age of 5 years among children attending MRRH. A hospital based cross-sectional descriptive
study was conducted on 113 respondents. Data collection was done using a pretested questionnaire and the
Emergency Nutrition Assessment software version 2015 was used to generate z-scores and the Weight for Height
Z-scores (WHZ) were generated using WHO 2005 Growth Standards. The data was then exported to IBM SPSS
version 25 for analysis. The age of children in this study ranged from 6 to 59 months with mean age of 22.3 ±14.2
(Std. deviation) months. Majority of the children were females (60.2%, n=68). Factors significantly associated with
malnutrition in this study was: low birth weight (X2=33.64, P=<0.001), positive history of infectious disease in the
two weeks preceding the study (X2=12.67, P=<0.001), and low socioeconomic status (X2=25.45, P=<0.001). The
prevalence was 31.9%, of which 25 (58%) were wasted and 18 (42%) were stunted. Malnutrition still remain a
herculean challenge in Uganda and the rest of Africa. While there are some reduction of global prevalence of
malnutrition from 1999 to 2015, however, there is a disparity as African countries like Uganda still have increased
prevalence of this condition. The major factors influencing Malnutrition among children attending the MRRH are
low birth weight of, history of infectious diseases, and low socioeconomic status of the parents/caretakers. And
there was a significant prevalence of malnutrition of 31.9%. The Mubende district health Team should work in
conjunction with the ministry of health to carry out more sensitization regarding nutrition of children with a special
focus on supporting people of low socio- economic status (peasants), promoting education on child feeding and
nutrition and prevention of common illnesses associated with children with malnutrition.