NUTRITIONAL ASSESSMENT AND FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH NUTRITIONAL STATUS AMONG THE CHILDREN (6-59 MONTHS) OF BRICK KILNS WORKERS OF BHAKTAPUR DISTRICT

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the nutritional status of under-five year children of brick kiln workers and to find out the factors associated with it in Bhaktapur district. A community based cross sectional study was conducted among 108 children aged 6-59 months at brick kilns of Bhaktapur district. Children were selected by simple random sampling technique. Anthropometric measurements and semi-structured questionnaire were used. Anthropometric measurement was then used to determine if children were underweight (weight-for-age), wasted (weight-for-height) and stunted (height-for-age) based on WHO reference. Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 20 and World Health Organization (WHO) Anthro version 3.2.2 were used for analyzing the data. Fisher exact test was used to identify the associated factors of malnutrition. The study revealed that 6.5, 30.6, and 22.3% of children were wasted, stunted and underweight respectively. The main associated factors of wasting were caste, health issue, prelacteal feed and artificial milk fed. Stunting was associated with type of family, child feeding without hand washing, number of children below five years in a family, feeding sarbottam pitho. whereas family size, type of family and mortality rate were found to be associated with underweight. From the findings of this study, it is concluded that malnutrition is still an important problem among children aged 6-59 months Therefore, special attention should be given on intervention of malnutrition