A study on prevalence of malnutritional status, associated factors anong pre-school children in Dadhikot Village Bhaktapur district rural area of Nepal

Abstract

This research is a cross sectional descriptive study. The purpose of the research is to study the factors associated with the nutrition status Bhaktapur district. The required data was collected using structure questionnaire from September 5th to 20th 1993. The sample in this research study included 248 youngest children in the family, whose age are 0 – 60 month from Dadhikot village. The objective of the study was to identify the prevalence of malnutrition and to assess factors associated with the nutritional status among under 5 yrs of age. The interested factors included demography, socioeconomic status, child care, food habit, health status, food supplementary information and anthropometric assessment. The result revealed that the prevalence of malnutrition among under 5 yrs children was 47.5 percent using weight for height ratio nutritional status classification based on Waterlow criteria. Statistical test was performed in logistic regression model, the result show that there is a significant association between age of the mother, occupation of the mother, mother job outside home and nutritional status with p – value 0.008, 0.04, and 0.003 respectively. In summary, there is still nutritional problem in children under 5 yrs of age in Dadhikot village. Therefore, the nutritional program, family planning program and other integrated maternal and child health welfare program are recommended to the district health professional to help improve the health status of children in that areas.