STUDY OF DIETARY HABITS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO SEVERE ACUTE MALNUTRITION IN CHILDREN AGED 6 TO 59 MONTHS IN THE BAGIRA HEALTH ZONE IN THE CITY OF BUKAVU: DRC

Introduction: Severe acute malnutrition is dependent on children's diet and particularly their eating habits. This study aimed to determine dietary habits and their contributions to severe acute malnutrition among children aged 6 to 49 months in the Bagira health zone. Methodology: a cross-sectional analytical study was carried out in the Bagira health zone with 120 mothers with children aged 6 to 59 months. The selection of individuals was madein a random way. A questionnaire was administered to mothers using the Kobocollect application and analyzes using SPSS version 25 software. Results: The analysis indicates that there was no statistically significant association between severe acute malnutrition and dietary frequency of children [OR = 4.205; 95% CI: 0.974–18.160], nor with foods consumed regularly [OR = 2.548; 95% CI: 0.593–10.939], nor yet with the main reasons for choosing the type of power supply [OR = 1.584; 95% CI: 0.222–11.279]. On the other hand, the dietary diversity score was significantly associated with severe acute malnutrition [OR = 8.381; 95% CI: 1.051–66.820]. Thus, households with a low or medium diversity score were 8.4 times more at risk of seeing their children develop severe acute malnutrition. Conclusion: Severe acute malnutrition among children aged 6 to 59 months in the Bagira health zone is mainly associated withnutritional and dietary factors, including low weight, low dietary diversity, lack of exclusive breastfeeding and inappropriate weaning. In contrast, sociodemographic and economic factors such as maternal age, education level or overall household income did not show a significant association. These results highlight the importance of strengthening dietary and care practices for the prevention of malnutrition.