Vaccination, nutrition and anaemia in the 2024 MDHS

Childhood vaccination

Among children aged 12 to 23 months, the report estimated that 79.8 percent in Dzaleka had received all basic antigens and 74.1 percent were fully vaccinated according to Malawi’s national schedule. The corresponding estimates elsewhere in Malawi were 66.7 and 46.6 percent. No child in the Dzaleka table was recorded as having received no vaccination, compared with 1.3 percent in the national comparison.

The estimate changes for the older age band. Among children aged 24 to 35 months, about 34 percent in both Dzaleka and the national comparison were fully vaccinated according to the national schedule. The Dzaleka table included 129 children aged 12 to 23 months and 80 aged 24 to 35 months, so the age bands should not be combined.

HPV vaccination

HPV coverage was substantially lower in the Dzaleka sample. Among women aged 15 to 17, 17 percent reported two doses, 6 percent one dose and 75 percent no dose. In the national comparison, 31 percent reported two doses, 26 percent one dose and 42 percent none. Percentages may not total exactly 100 because of rounding or unreported responses.

Child growth indicators

Among children under five in Dzaleka, 38 percent were stunted, 1 percent wasted, 7 percent underweight and 5 percent overweight. The national comparison was 38, 2, 10 and 6 percent respectively. Stunting was therefore common in both populations even where the other Dzaleka point estimates were slightly lower.

These indicators are not interchangeable. Stunting measures low height for age and reflects longer-term growth restriction; wasting measures low weight for height and is associated with acute undernutrition.

Anaemia

The survey classified 41 percent of Dzaleka children aged 6 to 59 months as anaemic, compared with 56 percent elsewhere in Malawi. In Dzaleka, 19 percent were mildly anaemic, 22 percent moderately anaemic and fewer than 1 percent severely anaemic.

Among women aged 15 to 49, anaemia prevalence was similar in the two populations: 35 percent in Dzaleka and 36 percent elsewhere. Lower prevalence than a comparison population does not mean the burden is small; roughly two in five young children and one in three women met the survey threshold in Dzaleka.