Child Health Indicators in Shareq Elneel Locality, Khartoum State, Sudan: A Cross-Sectional Study

Methods: A two stages cluster sampling, cross-sectional study was conducted in Shareq Elneel Locality and it is eight administrative units in Khartoum State, Sudan, in 2008. Questionnaires were collected from the caretakers of 5858 child under-5 years of age and anthropometric measurements were taken for children whose parents were consented. Results: 69.4 % of under 5 years children received the third dose of Poliomyelitis vaccine (Polio3) in the locality, 66.5 % of under 5 years children received DPT3 vaccination in the locality, 71.9 % of under 5 years children received Measles vaccination in the locality and 91.4 % of the children under- 5 years in the locality had immunization card. There was evidence of a significant association between children under-5 measles vaccination and women’s highest level of school attended (P-Value = 0.04). Nearly one third of the under 5 children were moderately underweight and 16.2 % them were severely underweight, More than one fifth of under 5 years children were moderately wasted, and 12 % of children under-5 years old were severely wasted, 44.6 % of children under-5 years of age were moderately stunted with obviously high percentage in the rural administrative units. More than one quarter of the children under- 5 years old were severely stunted and overweight prevalence of children under-5 years old in the locality was 14.6%. Only 21.4 % of the children aged less than 2 years in the locality were exclusively breastfed. 27.5 % of children under-5 years of age in the locality had diarrhea in the last 2 weeks preceding the survey, highest percentage found in the rural administrative units. 6.5 % of children under 5 years of age in the locality had fever in the last 2 weeks preceding the survey and nearly one third o