The effect of soybean based products on weight gain among malnourished children under five years in Ruhango district of Rwanda

Malnutrition in Rwanda is a public health problem especially in the Southern Province. Approximately 52% of children under five are chronically malnourished. This leads to learning impairments, stunted growth, and low adult productivity in the long term and low immunity leading to high child mortality rate. The immediate causes of malnutrition include inadequate food intake and diseases. The underlying causes are ignorance, poverty, and land scarcity. Soybean is an important source of high quality, inexpensive protein and oil. Although a lot of research has been done on the production of soybean in Rwanda, research onto what extent soybean in the diet can improve the nutritional status of moderately malnourished children has not been done or documented in Ruhango district. The aim of this study was therefore to determine the effect of soybean flour and soybean milk on the nutrition status of moderately malnourished children under the age of five. The study was conducted in Ruhango district of southern province Rwanda. A multistage sampling technique was used to randomly select 294 households that were surveyed to get the number of malnourished children, the composition of food intake and morbidity rate.