Prevalence of Undernutrition among Children Aged 6 - 59 Months in the Municipality of Toucountouna (Benin) in 2017

Introduction: Undernutrition is a public health problem in the world and especially in developing countries. According to the demographic and health survey with multiple indicators of Benin IV (DHS-MICS-IV), the prevalence of acute undernutrition (AU), chronic undernutrition (CU) and that of underweight (UW) was 16%, 45% and 21%, respectively. The objective of this work was to determine the prevalence of undernutrition in children aged 6 to 59 months in the municipality of Toucountouna in 2017. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study with two-stage cluster random sampling, composed of 390 children aged 6 to 59 months, living in the municipality of Toucountouna for at least six months. The study variables were: socio-demographic, economic, behavioral, socio-sanitary and anthropometric. Data were entered and analyzed using Epi-info 7.2 software. Results: 203 out of 390 children included, were boys (sex ratio of 1.08). The mean age of the children was 28.70 ± 11.79 months. The prevalence of AU, CU and UW was 10.26%, 31.54% and 11.79%, respectively. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that efforts remain to be made in terms of undernutrition and other surveys could identify the determinants linked to this situation in the locality for the effective implementation of prevention.