Nutritional status and related factors in children, Bandar Turkmen district, Iran

ABSTRACT

Prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition [PEM] is one of the important problems of third-world countries including Iran. This study assessed nutritional status and some related factors among children aged 0-5 years in Bandar Turkmen district. In this cross-sectional study, 616 children aged less than 5 years were selected with stratified random sampling. Malnutrition was defined as <-2 SD National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS] reference [weight for age, weight for height and height for age respectively]. Obesity was defined as > +2 SD NCHS reference. Data were collected by interview with mothers and were analyzed with SPSS-11.5 software. In this study, prevalence of underweight, wasting and stunting and obesity were 3.7, 3.9, 7 and 6% respectively. Exclusively breastfeeding, mother's BMI, mother's weight and parental educational and economic status had significant correlation with children's PEM [p<0.05]. Birth weight <2500 g and >4000 g [p=0.031], breast feeding duration <18 months [p=0.017], mother's present age >/=37 years [p=0.039], mother's delivery age >30 years [p=0.043] and formula or cow's milk plus breast feeding up to 6 months old [p=0.018] had significant correlation with children's obesity. In multivariate analysis on logistic regression, mother's nutritional knowledge [OR=11.22, p=0.001] was most important risk factor for PEM. Exclusively breast feeding up to 6 months of age rather than formula or cow's milk plus breast feeding, reduced 2.45 times obesity risk [p=0.019]. We conclude that breast feeding at first 6 months of age, longer breast feeding duration and pregnancy in lower than 30 years of age reduce risk of child nutritional status