Determinants Of Acute Malnutrition Among Under-five Years Children
[A CASE STUDY OF ILLELA LOCAL GOVERNMENT SOKOTO STATE, NIGERIA]

Results in table 4.6 indicate that children aged 37-59 months wereless likely to be underweight (OR=0.76) than their counterparts who were aged 12 months and below (reference category) in Araba and Kalmalodistricts. In fact children aged 37-59 months and child underweight were statistically significant since the p-value(p=0.03**<0.05) was less than the critical value of 0.05 at 95% confidence interval. The above findings agree with similar findings at national level that the proportion of underweight children is lowest among children 36-59 months old and highest among those 6-8 months old(UBOS and ICF International Inc., 2012).  Similar findings have been observed by several scholars in Vietnam, India, Nigeria and Kenya (Nguyen and Kam., 2008;  Sarmistha, 1999;
Babatunde, 2011 and Kabubo-Mariaraetal., 2006). The findings are however contrary to the study in Ethiopia that found out that underweight had a positive linear relationship with age of a child (Yimer, 2000).
Findings indicate that there is a significant relationship between woman’s occupation and stunting among underfive children (p=0.05) in Araba and kalmalodistricts.  Children whose mothers were pastoralists (OR=0.12) were less likely to be stunted unlike their counterparts whose mothers were peasant farmers (reference category).  Mothers  engaged  in pastoralism are believed to supplement the nutrition value of their children with cow milk and other milk products  which  consequently  reduces  the  risk  of  stunting  unlike  the peasant farmers and business people.  According to Salah and Nnyepi (2006), crop cultivators were more likely to have stunted children.  Similarly, a  study done in Vietnam found out that children from mothers who were crop cultivators had an increased risk of stunting  because they rarely get time to care for their children hence end up leaving them under the care of elder siblings or inexperienced maids  (Nguyen and Kam, 2008). In another study, it 42found out that some mothers especially peasant farmers in most cases fail to provide supplementary feeding to their children because they cannot afford (Olwedoetal., 2008).