Evaluation of nutritional status and some correlated factors of children under five in two villages in Tien Giang province

ABSTRACT

A cross sectional study was carried out on 866 children under 5 years old and all mothers with children under 2 years old in 2 villages of Cai Be district, Tien Giang province (one village often suffered by flooding and one village rarely had flooding). Household KAP interviews using structured questionnaire have been conducted. The weight and height of all children were measured. Results: In two villages, the percentage of malnourished children was still high (21.24%). Simultaneously, obesity in children under five (1.7%) emerged as a new health issue. All these risk factors educational status of fathers and mothers, practice in feeding (giving the child fluid during 24 hours after birth, feeding during the child experienced diarrheae), starvation of families, knowledge on growth chart, time of first feeding the baby with supplementary food, time of weaning were investigated. There is no statistic significant association of those risk factors with nutritional status of children under five between the two villages