Influence of socio-economic status on the nutrition status of born to young mothers in Transmara west Narok County, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine influence of social economic status on the nutrition status of born to young mothers in Transmara west Narok County, Kenya. Five health facilities were purposively selected in Transmara West Sub County, Narok County by use of analytical cross-sectional study design. A sample size of 246 infants and 246 adolescent mothers were recruited from the health facilities. Quantitative data was analysed using SPPS for windows version 24.0 and ENA for SMART survey 2011. The relationship between nutritional status and other variables was established by use of chi-square test at a significance level of less than 0.05. Most of the mothers were between 16 to 17 years with the youngest mother being 14 years old. The study concluded that the young teenage mothers depended on their families as the main sustenance and others did casual jobs to fend for themselves and their infants.The majority of the adolescent mothers could be classified as of low socio-economic backgrounds. The study recommends that children of young mothers are more vulnerable to malnutrition hence should be given more priority by the government and other stakeholders.