cultural determinants associated with malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months in west pokot county, kenya

Background: malnutrition is deficiencies or excess nutrients by an individual. includes under-nutrition and micronutrient-related malnutrition. it causes about half of all fatalities in children below five years; increases the chance of a child dying from common ailments. cultural determinants are associated with malnutrition of ages 6-59 months. objectives: the study sought to establish the determinants contributing to child malnutrition in west pokot county of kenya.methods: this was cross sectional study. multistage cluster sampling was applied. anthropometric measures of 420 children aged 6-59 months in pokot north sub-county were assessed. data was collected from august-september, 2022 using online questionnaire. pretesting was done for validity and reliability. spss v.2022 used for data analysis. chi-square and odds ratios and confidence intervals were used to test variables.results: mean (sd) age of the respondents’ children was 29.9 (16.0). over 60% of children were below 35 weeks. children with 0-11 months had lower representation (15.2%). 82.4% had one younger sibling. monogamy (76.8%) had fewer malnutrition cases (or: 0.5; p=0.015). violence was high and had impact on malnutrition (34.5%). traditional food restrictions caused malnutrition (or:1.8; 95% ci:1.2-2.8; p=0.006).conclusion: there is evidence that some cultural aspects: types of marriage, caretaker violence and food taboos contribute to malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months in west pokot county. awareness on harmful cultural practices should be implemented. more studies should be done to establish why cultural practices still exist.