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The Ecology of Health During Middle-Childhood in Rural Akamba of Kenya
Kaleli-Lee, Grace M
Kaleli-Lee, Grace M
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Abstract
To the Akamba people of Kenya middle-childhood is well defined based on cultural expectations although it doesn’t have a distinct name. These children are crucial to the survival of the Akamba, however, a combination of low mortality and cultural biases has contributed to their marginalization in both health studies and community based dialog participation. This study examines the ecology of middle-childhood health by assessing their nutritional status through anthropometry and contextualizing it in the Akamba culture. Cross-sectional, anthropometric data were collected for 472 school aged Akamba children in the semi-arid lowlands of Makueni County. The results show that 95.12% of the children are underweight with 69% classified as severely underweight with BMI values of less than 16 kg/m2. The overall prevalence of stunting is 19% with the highest prevalence occurring in the 13 year olds at 40.35%. Water scarcity and the unreliable rain cycles have increased incidents of drought and food insecurity resulting in a more adverse environment. As the children enter middle-childhood and are given more responsibility, greater physical demands and inadequate caloric intake affect their growth and development. The provenance of solutions to health-related maladies may be stronger if education targets Akamba children in middle-childhood because of the physiology of growth in this life stage. Historically, survival has been predicated on the plasticity of the proximate variables of the Akamba culture giving supportive space for this dialog to have greater impact potential to the future landscape of Akamba health insofar as the children are included in culturally supported models.
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Date
2015-05-31
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Physical anthropology, Cultural anthropology, Nutrition, Akamba, anthropometrics, health, Kenya, middle-childhood, nutrition