Socio-economic status and overweight or obesity among school-age children in sub-Saharan Africa - a systematic review

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. H. Fruhstorfer ◽  
C. Mousoulis ◽  
O. A. Uthman ◽  
W. Robertson
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Bwangandu Ngandu ◽  
Douglas Momberg ◽  
Ansuyah Magan ◽  
Lumbwe Chola ◽  
Shane A. Norris ◽  
...  

AbstractAdverse birth outcomes and infant undernutrition remain the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Impaired infant growth and development, which often begins during foetal development, may persist during the first 2 years of life and has been associated with higher risks of cardiometabolic diseases. This systematic review assessed the associations between maternal demographic characteristics and household socio-economic status (SES), and preterm birth (PTB), small for gestational age, low birth weight (LBW), stunting, wasting and underweight in children under 2 years of age in SSA countries. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we searched for publications in three electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus and ScienceDirect). Eleven studies on children under 2 years of age, in four SSA regions, published in English between 1990 and 2018, were included. All the studies were observational in design (cross-sectional or cohort studies). Maternal education was the most commonly explored exposure. Most studies (63.3%) focused on undernutrition during the first 2 years of life: LBW, PTB and stunting. Lower maternal education, maternal unemployment and lower household wealth index were the SES factors most commonly associated with adverse birth outcomes and infant undernutrition. Maternal marital status was not associated with any infant outcomes. The definitions of the SES varied, which may explain discrepancies between studies. Nutrition intervention programs in SSA need to promote education and poverty alleviation in women at reproductive age, starting from pre-pregnancy, to optimise infant growth and development and prevent the increase in the prevalence of cardiometabolic diseases.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Idowu Biao

This article posits that schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa has so far failed to yield the results expected of it on twogrounds. First, the population of persons accessing both basic education and other levels of education is negligible incomparison with those who ought to access them (1 out of every 4 primary school age children; less than half of thequalified secondary school students; about 7% gross enrolment within higher education). Second, schooling hasfailed to deliver the kind of socio-economic development expected in the case of Sub-Saharan Africa as a highprevalence of poverty still exists and incongruity continues to exist between the education provided and thelivelihoods of Sub-Saharan Africans. Using this poor educational and development performance as justification, amore utilitarian, relevant and sustainable approach to basic education and learning is recommended for Africa goingforward. This recommended approach combines both the current school system with a special non-formal educationsystem for the purpose of delivering basic education and learning in Sub-Saharan Africa in the twenty-first century.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bright Opoku Ahinkorah ◽  
Edward Kwabena Ameyaw ◽  
Abdul-Aziz Seidu

Abstract Introduction Globally, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) bears the highest proportion of women with unmet need for contraception as nearly 25% of women of reproductive age in the sub-region have unmet need for contraception. Unmet need for contraception is predominant among young women. We examined the association between socio-economic and demographic factors and unmet need for contraception among young women in SSA. Methods Data for this study obtained from current Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2018 in 30 sub-Saharan African countries. The sample size consisted of young women (aged 15–24), who were either married or cohabiting and had complete cases on all the variables of interest (N = 59,864). Both bivariate and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were performed using STATA version 14.0. Results The overall prevalence of unmet need for contraception among young women was 26.90% [95% CI: 23.82–29.921], ranging from 11.30% [95% CI: 5.1–17.49] in Zimbabwe to 46.7% [95% CI: 36.92–56.48] in Comoros. Results on socio-economic status and unmet need for contraception showed that young women who had primary [aOR = 1.18; CI = 1.12–1.25, p < 0.001] and secondary/higher levels of formal education [aOR = 1.27; CI = 1.20–1.35, p < 0.001] had higher odds of unmet need for contraception compared to those with no formal education. With wealth status, young women in the richest wealth quintile had lower odds of unmet need for contraception compared with those in the poorest wealth quintile [aOR = 0.89; CI = 0.81–0.97, p < 0.01]. With the demographic factors, the odds of unmet need for contraception was lower among young women aged 20–24 [aOR = 0.74; CI = 0.70–0.77, p < 0.001], compared with 15–19 aged young women. Also, young women who were cohabiting had higher odds of unmet need for contraception compared to those who were married [aOR = 1.35; CI = 1.28–1.43, p < 0.001]. Conclusion Our study has demonstrated that unmet need for contraception is relatively high among young women in SSA and this is associated with socio-economic status. Age, marital status, parity, occupation, sex of household head, and access to mass media (newspaper) are also associated with unmet need for contraception. It is therefore, prudent that organisations such as UNICEF and UNFPA and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who have implemented policies and programmes on contraception meant towards reducing unmet need for contraception among women take these factors into consideration when designing interventions in sub-Saharan African countries to address the problem of high unmet need for contraception among young women.


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