Socio-economic variables of children with undernutrition and their controls in Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria

Background: Low socio-economic and educational levels of parents are important risk factors for under-nutrition in children. The distribution ofhealth and diseases in childhood had been shown to be strongly influenced by the social characteristics like occupation and educational attainment. The aim of this study was to determine the socioeconomic status among children with Protein Energy Malnutrition and the Controls in Zaria usingthe modification of the method earlier used by Oyedeji. Method: This study was a case control health- based descriptive study to determine the socioeconomic and demographic variables in  undernourished children in Zaria. Using systematic sampling method, a total of 132 children (cases and controls) between 6 and 59 months of age were selected for assessment of socioeconomic and demographic variables. Results: Nineteen (28.8%) of the study group belong to social class III as compared to 12 (18.2%) for the controls. As for the educational levels of the parents, among the cases, 28 (42.4%) had Islamic education, 25 (37.9%) had secondary education, 10 (15.1%), 2 (3.0%) and 1 (1.5%) had primary,  tertiary and no formal education respectively. For the controls, 7 (10.6%) had Islamic education, 34 (51.5%) had secondary education, 13 (19.7%) and 12 (18.1%) had primary and tertiary education respectively. There was none with no formal education, The statistical analysis showed significant  difference (P= 0.0009) between cases and controls for maternal educational levels only among the demographic data. Conclusion: This study has been able to establish low socio- economic factors among undernourished children studied. Keywords: Under-nutrition, socioeconomic factors, educational levels, children