The Prevalence of Low Weight in Children under 6 Years Old in Lordegan City in 2015-2016

Abstract

Introduction: Human health is affected by heredity and environment. The issue of inheritance is of paramount importance, but the impacts of environmental factors and nutritional conditions sometimes go beyond the hereditary factors. Investigation of the status of child development is the most important criterion for identifying the health status. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of underweight children in Lordegan City during 2015-2016.

Methods: This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was carried out on 900 children under 6 years of age in Lordegan in 2015-2016. Sampling was performed using two-stage cluster sampling method. Data were collected using observation and interview by filling out a questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS.V 22 software, independent T-test, and Chi-Square tests at a significant level of 0.05.

Results: In this study, 900 children were studied; 49% (441 persons) were female and 51% (459) were male. Of this number, 700 (77.7%) were of normal weight, 155 (17.3%) were moderately underweight, and 45 (5%) were severely underweight. The highest prevalence of malnutrition in boys and girls was at the age of 2 and 3 years, respectively.. Moreover, 91.1% of the population lived in the village, 8.4% lived in the city, and 0.5% were living in the suburbs and tribes. In this study, a significant relationship was found between illiteracy of parents, breakfast in the week, place of living, main meal per day, age of the child, number of children in the family, hospitalization of the child due to illness, maternal number of pregnancies, and low weight prevalence (p≤0.05).

Conclusion: Regarding the results and their comparison with the standard weight, environmental factors can be effective in delaying weight gain. Therefore, educating health care and parental care for proper nutrition can lead to children's health at this stage of growth.