Abstract
This chapter outlines the prevalence and high-risk groups for adult undernutrition and discusses the social, behavioral, and structural mechanisms that can lead to food insecurity and undernutrition in a post-conflict setting like northern Uganda. In summary, adult undernutrition is higher in the post-conflict area of Uganda compared to areas that did not experience the war. Undernutrition varies by gender and age groups, higher among men than women, with young men and elderly being most likely to be underweight. Social and behavioral risk factors for undernutrition specific to post-conflict areas, such as substance use, and disruption of traditional values and norms will be discussed. The high prevalence of undernutrition among men may be a result of a “syndemic” interaction between mental illness, HIV, substance abuse, and undernutrition itself, which further interacts with the social and structural conditions such as gender inequality, stigma, stress, feelings of disempowerment and shame, poverty, and limited access to health care. Focusing on conventional target groups in health interventions and failure to adapt to the local context may have contributed to disruption of existing family and social structures and created other risk groups for undernutrition that are not targeted.
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Abbreviations
- AIDS:
-
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
- ANC:
-
Antenatal care
- BMI:
-
Body mass index
- CMR:
-
Crude mortality rate
- DHS:
-
Demographic and health survey
- GAM:
-
Global acute malnutrition
- GoU:
-
Government of Uganda
- HDSS:
-
Health and Demographic Surveillance Site
- HIV:
-
Human immunodeficiency virus
- IDP:
-
Internally displaced person
- LRA:
-
Lord’s Resistance Army
- MoH:
-
Ministry of Health
- NGO:
-
Nongovernmental organization
- PTSD:
-
Post-traumatic stress disorder
- STD:
-
Sexually transmitted diseases
- TB:
-
Tuberculosis
- UBOS:
-
Uganda Bureau of Statistics
- UNHCR:
-
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- UPDF:
-
Uganda People’s Defence Force
- USA:
-
United States of America
- U5MR:
-
Under-five mortality rate
- WFP:
-
World Food Programme
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
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Schramm, S., Sodemann, M. (2019). Adult Undernutrition in Rural Post-conflict Northern Uganda. In: Preedy, V., Patel, V. (eds) Handbook of Famine, Starvation, and Nutrient Deprivation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55387-0_77
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