AN APPRAISAL OF COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE MALNUTRITION (CMAM) PROGRAMME AMONG MALNOURISHED CHILDREN AT A GENERAL HOSPITAL IN NORTH-WEST NIGERIA
Hamza Ruqayya1, Idris Abdulrashid1*, Salisu Abubakar1, Garba Saratu Abdullahi1,
Abdullahi Aisha Suleiman1, Mohammed Mustapha2
1Department of Nursing Science, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria
2Hospital Service Management Board, Katsina State, Nigeria
Corresponding Author: Idris Abdulrashid
ABSTRACT
Severe acute malnutrition has been a major cause of childhood mortality, especially among
children under the age of five, with an estimated figure of about 20 million children worldwide.
The study determined the outcome of CMAM programme, the role of healthcare workers in the
CMAM programme, and challenges of the programme. Utilizing a mixed method research
design for the study which included all health care workers involved directly or indirectly in the
CMAM programme and malnourished children that were admitted between the years 2012-2014
for the CMAM programme in Baure general hospital, Katsina state; A purposive sampling
technique was used to recruit the sample size of 37 health workers and also reviewed previous data
of admitted malnourished children. After obtaining an informed consent for the study, a
structured questionnaire and a checklist for WHO-Sphere minimum standard were used as tools
for collecting data. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)
version 20. Findings of the study revealed that, the default rate was <5% while the death rate
was <3%; 83.8% of the respondents agreed that in-patient/out-patient therapeutic management is
the role of healthcare workers, while 97.3% agreed that shortage of manpower was the most
challenging issue in the programme. Based on the findings, it was recommended that
Government and Non-governmental organisations should sustain the programme and also
ensure adequate pre-service training on CMAM programme for healthcare workers; health
institutions and health related programmes in the universities should include WHO CMAMModel
into their curriculum and take the lead in developing training courses, materials and
teaching aids.
Key words: Outcome, community management, acute malnutrition, malnourished children.
