Child and Maternal Nutrition
Improvement of child health in neonates in Africa
Funding for this project (# 2016-07259) was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Higher Education Challenge (HEC) grant program. This project is in collaboration with the University of Arkansas, Texas Tech University, and The Borlaug Institute at Texas A&M University.
Overview
Majority of childhood deaths are in low- and middle-income countries; almost half of those deaths occur among neonates. The rate of child death is highest among countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In this lesson you will learn about common leading causes and key risk factors of child death, which based on this learning, you will give a recommendation to address child death in the short, medium, and long term
Objectives
- Identify key risk factors and leading causes of children under 5 years of age
- Make recommendations for the short, medium, and long run to address child death
- Identify the stakeholders that you would engage in reducing childhood mortality rates
Level of Instruction
Graduate
Learner Prerequisite Knowledge
Infant and child nutrition, neonatal, infant, and under 5 mortality, policy and program interventions
Instructor Preparation/Notes
Read all associated materials, have an existing knowledge of the subject matter.
Instructions
Learner time required: This lesson should take the well-informed student 2-3 hours to complete.
Read the case provided below:
You have just been posted in as a director of child health with an international organization in one of the poorest countries in Africa. The country has 10 million people and a GDP per capita of only $300. Eighty five percent of the people live in rural areas, where they are mostly subsistence farmers. The total fertility rate is 5.0. The maternal mortality ratio is 500. The under-five child mortality rate is 100. HIV prevalence among adults is 6.7%. The public health system is exceptionally weak, although immunization coverage has greatly expanded. There is a growing church related NGO sector in health, but it is still limited in coverage.
You have been asked to develop a new child health policy for that can be presented to the country’s director of health.
As you prepare your policy, use the following questions as a guide:
- What are the leading causes of child death?
- At what ages do children die?
- Which children are most at risk?
- What are the key risk factors?
- In order to priority, what would you recommend in the short run to address child deaths? Where will you get the money, in the short, medium, and long run to do what you recommend?
- Who are the stake holders in the country and what would be their role in your plan?
Learning Materials
- Watch a few short video clips to inspire you about what can be done to improve child health in Neonates in this country:
- Documents/Research Papers:
Assessment:
Self-exam
Additional Materials and Resources
- Effective nutrition education and communication for sustainable maternal and child health:
- Causes of child mortality:
Creative Commons Attribution:
Attribution-NonCommercial–ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
Mary Murimi
Ph.D., RD
College of Human Sciences
Texas Tech University