NUTRITIONAL ASSESSMENT OF 6-59 MONTHS CHILDREN OF DHARAN-6, PANBARI, SUNSARI NEPAL

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess factors associated with nutritional status of 6 – 59 months children in Dharan-6, Panbari, Sunsari. A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 126 children aged 6-59 months in Dharan-6, Panbari, Sunsari. 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’s exact test were used to identify the associated factors of malnutrition. The study revealed that 19.8%, 11.1% and 8.7% of children were stunted, underweight and wasted respectively. The main associating factors with stunting (P<0.005) were age of child. Underweight was found associated (P<0.05) with Home garden. Similarly, wasting was found statistically significant (P<0.05) with family size, milk and milk product consumption and birth weight. Result of this study indicates that under nutrition is still an important problem among 6 to 59 months children of Dharan-6, Panbari, Sunsari. So, the nutrition intervention programs focusing above risk factors should be launched immediately to overcome the problems.