open access

https://doi.org/10.14943/J.HighEdu.16.67

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/38789

Training Local Health Assistants for a Community Health Survey in a Developing Country : Longitudinal Monitoring of the Growth and Nutrition of Children in Zambia

英語

2008-12

北海道大学高等教育機能開発総合センター

Journal of Higher Education and Lifelong Learning

16

67-75

The nutritional status, growth, and health of children are useful indicators for assessing the ability of a population to adapt to the environment and the extent of this adaptation. These indicators can be used to measure and evaluate the overall nutritional status and health of young children. In Zambia, in southern Africa, drought and unpredictable erratic rainfall are major factors affecting the health and nutrition of the inhabitants, particularly small children. A recent national survey conducted in Zambia indicated that the nutritional status of children was poor because 50% of children between 3 and 59 months of age had stunted growth (extremely short for their age), 20% were underweight (low weight for their age), and 6% showed growth wasting (low weight for their height). By contrast, between 1991 and 2004, data from six cross-sectional national surveys did not show any evidence of effects of drought. Therefore, an intensive, village-level, longitudinal monitoring survey is required to assess the effects of drought on the growth and nutrition of children. We briefl y summarize the growth and nutrition of Zambian children using data from the report of the Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) 2004, with special focus on the southern and eastern provinces of Zambia. In addition, we propose a methodology for conducting a longitudinal survey to monitor child growth and nutrition in rural villages in the eastern and southern provinces of Zambia and report a 1-week intensive program to train local health assistants to make anthropometric measurements.

紀要論文

Version of Record

1341-9374