Marseille 2007
| Abstract #9 - Poorer health and nutritional outcomes in orphans and vulnerable young children not explained by greater exposure to extreme poverty in Zimbabwe | ||||
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Session: 17.7: Challenges for Children (Parallel) on Monday @ 14.00-16.00 in Auditorium/Overflow Chaired by Patrice Engle, Christina Noestlinger Authors: Presenting Author: Ms Helen Watts - Imperial College, United Kingdom |
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| Additional Authors: Dr Simon Gregson, Ms Suzue Saito, Dr Ben Lopman, Dr Michael Beasley, Mr Roeland Monasch, | ||||
| Aim: To describe patterns of association between different forms of young orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and their nutritional and health outcomes. To develop a theoretical framework to analyse the determinants of child malnutrition and ill-health and identify the different mechanisms which contribute to these outcomes in OVC. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Development and testing of a theoretical framework to explain the mechanisms through which OVC experience results in increased child ill-health and malnutrition through statistical analysis of data on 31,672 children aged 0-17 years (6,753 aged under 5 years) selected from the Zimbabwe OVC Baseline Survey 2004. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Twenty-eight percent of children aged 0-4 years at last birthday were either orphans or vulnerable children. OVC were more likely than non-vulnerable children to have suffered recently from diarrhoeal illness (age- and sexadjusted odds ratio, AOR, 1.27; 95% CI 1.09-1.48) and acute respiratory infection (1.27; 1.01-1.59) and to be stunted (1.24; 1.09-1.41) and underweight (1.18; 1.02-1.36). After further adjustment for exposure to extreme poverty, OVC remained at greater risk of diarrhoeal disease (AOR 1.25; 1.07-1.46) and chronic malnutrition (1.21; 1.07-1.38). In 0-17 year-olds, OVC with acute respiratory infection were more likely not to have received any treatment even after adjusting for poverty (AOR 1.29; 95% CI 1.16-1.43). | ||||
| Discussion: Differences in exposure to extreme poverty amongst young children by OVC status were relatively small and did not explain the greater malnutrition and ill-health seen in OVC. | ||||
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