NUTRITIONAL-STATUS OF UNDER FIVES ATTENDING MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTHCLINICS IN DAR-ES-SALAAM, TANZANIA

We designed a study to assess the nutritional status of children under five years of age attending MCH clinics in Dar es Salaam, This was a cross-sectional anthropometric study involving children 6-24 months wh o from July to August 1993 were attending Magomeni MCH clinic and thos e aged 18 months to five years who were attending Lugalo and Mwananyam ala MCH clinics for routine growth monitoring and for vaccination betw een May to August 1994. The data collected included age, birthweight, sex, weight, height, breastfeeding status and HIV-1 serostatus, Of the 1854 children enrolled (961 boys and 893 girls) 31.6% were stunted, 1 4.6% were underweight and 2.9% were wasted, The highest percentage of stunting and wasting was observed between 11 and 25 months and 36 to 4 0 months, Of the 849 children tested for HIV-1, 14 (1.7%) were seropos itive and two out of 770 (0.3%) were born with, low weight, HIV seropo sitivity and low birthweight were both associated with stunting and wa sting, We conclude that malnutrition is still a sizeable problem among children attending urban MCH clinics in Dar es Salaam especially amon g those aged less than three years, to whom special malnutrition contr ol strategies should he targeted, There is also a need to identify fac tors responsible for the observed decline in MCH attendance with age a nd correct the situation.