STUDY OF DIETARY HABITS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO SEVERE ACUTE MALNUTRITION IN CHILDREN AGED 6 TO 59 MONTHS IN THE BAGIRA HEALTH ZONE IN THE CITY OF BUKAVU: DRC

Introduction: Severe acute malnutrition is dependent on children's diet
and particularly their eating habits. This study aimed to determine
dietary habits and their contributions to severe acute malnutrition
among children aged 6 to 49 months in the Bagira health zone.
Methodology: a cross-sectional analytical study was carried out in the
Bagira health zone with 120 mothers with children aged 6 to 59
months. The selection of individuals was madein a random way. A
questionnaire was administered to mothers using the Kobocollect
application and analyzes using SPSS version 25 software.
Results: The analysis indicates that there was no statistically
significant association between severe acute malnutrition and dietary
frequency of children [OR = 4.205; 95% CI: 0.974–18.160], nor with
foods consumed regularly [OR = 2.548; 95% CI: 0.593–10.939], nor
yet with the main reasons for choosing the type of power supply [OR =
1.584; 95% CI: 0.222–11.279]. On the other hand, the dietary diversity
score was significantly associated with severe acute malnutrition [OR =
8.381; 95% CI: 1.051–66.820]. Thus, households with a low or
medium diversity score were 8.4 times more at risk of seeing their
children develop severe acute malnutrition.
Conclusion: Severe acute malnutrition among children aged 6 to 59
months in the Bagira health zone is mainly associated withnutritional
and dietary factors, including low weight, low dietary diversity, lack of
exclusive breastfeeding and inappropriate weaning. In contrast,
sociodemographic and economic factors such as maternal age,
education level or overall household income did not show a significant
association. These results highlight the importance of strengthening
dietary and care practices for the prevention of malnutrition.