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Abstract
Nutritional status of child is influenced by large number of factors, one of which is food consumption, when a child’s intake of food falls below the standard allowance, growth slows and malnutrition ensues, and it can lead to growth failure and to increased susceptibility to disease.
The present survey was conducted to asses the nutritional status of preschool children. To identify the eating habits and food consumption patterns, to assess the prevalence of stunting, wasting, and overweight among the studied sample, to estimate the prevalence of anemia and the extent of parasitic infestation and to investigate the socio demographic determinants of nutritional status.
The present study was conducted in EI Beida-city. A cross sectional approach was used out with the target population being the preschool children aged 24-60 months, A stratified random sample was selected from homes and from two child and maternal health care centers. The total sample size (250 preschoolers) represented from different socioeconomic levels.
A precoded questionnaire was designed and used to interview the mothers, after being tested through a pilot study. The questionnaire included information on the child and family characteristics. Dietary characteristics and eating habits were obtained using the qualitative food frequency method to assess food consumption pattern and its adequacy, using recommended daily food guide for that specific age group.
Antropometric assessment was performed. Weight and height were accurately measured for each child and the anthropometric assessment was performed according to the WHO criteria. Prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was estimated using Zscore system.
• Haematological assessment was done for a subsample (117 children were assessed for Hb and III children for other hematological investigations).
• All the sample (250) children were subjected to stool analysis for detection of intestinal helmenthes and protozoa.
• Description and analysis of data were made by SPSS version II. Levels of significance were set at p vahle < 0.05, descriptive statistics, univarite tests of significance, Chi square tests, Fisher Exact test, Montecarlo-Exact test were used.
• Simple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the factors associated or determinants of underweight, stunting, and wasting.
Findings of the present study can be summarized as follows:
• The studied sample included 123 males and 127 females, 63% of the children aged < 36 months were boys and 37% were girls. About 47% of the children aged> 36 months were boys and 52.5% were girls. Nearly half (45.6%) of the preschoolers were in the first or second birth order.
• 16.8% of the studied preschoolers got diarrhea and 22.8% got upper respiratory tract infection during the two weeks preceding the study.
• Illiteracy was reported among 17.6% of the mothers and 15.6% of fathers of the study sample.
• More than one third (34.4%) of the sample were exclusively breast-fed and 8.4% were artificially fed and more than half (57.2%) were on mixed feeding. Prolonged breast feeding (> 2years) was practiced by 9.5% of mothers.
• 23% of the studied preschoolers belonged to mothers younger than thirty, 64.3% belonged to mothers of thirty to less than forty.
• About 59.1 % of the present sample belonged to families with sufficient monthly income, 24.8% belonged to families with insufficient monthly income, and the minority (15.6%) belonged to families with sufficient and save monthly income.
• More than two thirds (66.0%) had 3 or more information tools.
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• Mean crowding index was X ±SD 2.17± 1.23.
• As regard to food consumption patterns and eating habits, the majority (92%) of the sample ate three or more main meals, and 39.6% of the children ate combination of snacks.
• About one third (32.4%) of the study sample consumed adequate amounts of milk and dairy products while 36.4% of them their consumption was less than adequate.
• Consumption of meat group was more than adequate in 62.8% of the sample and only in 13.6% it was less than adequate.
• Intake of vegetables and fruits was adequate in more than one third (37.2%) of the sample and less than adequate in 34.8%.
• Consumption of bread was more than adequate among most of children of the study (94.4%).
• The overall level of underweight was 6%, that of stunting and wasting were 10% and 5.2% respectively. Overweight was 4.8% of the total sample when indicated by weight-for-age and 7.6% when indicated by weight-for-height.
• The levels of malnutrition based on anthropometry, underweight and wasting were higher among the younger age group and the association was statistically significant only for wasting. Level of stunting was higher among the older age group with no statistically significant association.
• Level of underweight was higher in girls while level of wasting was higher among boys and the relation was statistically significant only for wasting.
• Other factors that were significantly related to underweight were educational level of mother, age of mother and haemoglobin concentration.
• Factors related to stunting were education of mother, and age of mother.
• Educational level of mother was the only significant predictor of underweight and
in stunting, maternal age and educational level are the two determinates.
• Factors significantly related to wasting were age of child, sex, and age of mothers.
• Child’s age was the only significant predictor of wasting.
• The majority of the studied preschoolers (81.2%) had no parasitic infestation, and the rest had only protozoal infestation.
• The percent of anemia among the studied sample was 9.4%.
• The main recommendation of the present study is that nutrition education should be focused on mother regarding the importance of healthy, balanced diet for child and encourage physical activity.