Association between Childs Nutritional Status and Some Socio-demographic Factors Related to Mothers In Diyala Governorate

Abstract

Background: Proper nutrition is central in promoting the normal growth and development of children while malnutrition is one of the most important public health problems among preschool children and the nutritional status among these age groups might be affected with some demographical factors related to mother.  

Objective: To identify the association between some socio-demographic factors related to mother and nutritional status of children less than two years of age in Diyala Governorate.       

Materials and Methods: A probability sample (i.e. every element of the population has a known probability of being included in the sample), including (420) children less than two years had been selected from 12 Primary Health Care Centers in Diyala governorate, Iraq, during the period from 13^th November 2010 to 10^th March 2011, which were selected through a multi-stage (4 stages) random sampling technique, the study population was mothers and their children. Data were collected by direct interviewing of every child's mother via a using questionnaire. The questionnaire contained close ended questions. The nutritional status for each child determined by using the anthropometric measurements (weight and length) through z-score technique, Chi-square-test used for testing the contingency coefficient (causes correlation ship) and p-value above 0.05 considered as non-significant.

Results: The current study revealed that was no a significant association between child’s nutritional status indicated by stunting and all the studied demographical factors related to mother at p-value (>0.05). Only in case of mother’s educational level there was a significant association at p-value (<0.05). Regarding the association between child’s nutritional status indicated by underweight, there was a significant association between child’s underweight and all the studied demographical factors at p-value (<0.05) except in family type and age groups at p-value (>0.05). Also results of the study showed that there was no a significant association between nutritional status indicated by wasting and all the studied factors except in case of mother residency, there was a highly significant association at p-value (<0.01).

Conclusion: The current study concluded that the nutritional status indicated by underweight was significantly most affected by mother’s related demographical factors.