ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF 6-59 MONTHS OF CHILDREN IN SATAR COMMUNITY OF KANKAI MUNICIPALITY, JHAPA

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess nutritional status of 6 to 59 months aged children of Satar community of Kankai Municipality, Jhapa. 128 children were found by applying census sampling technique for the assessment. Data was collected by using a structured questionnaire from 128 children paired with their respondent, anthropometric measurement and basic associated factors were collected. The response rate was 100%. SPSS version 20 and WHO anthro version 3.2.2 were used for data analysis. Chi-square and P-value techniques were used to assess factors associated with nutritional status of children. A total of 128 children, 22.7%, 36.7% and 35.2% were wasted, stunted and underweight respectively, out of them 4.7%, 18% and 15.6% were severely wasted, severely stunted and severely underweight respectively. According to MUAC based on WHO classification, wasting was found to be 43%. MUAC on the basis of age group the highest percentage of wasting was found to be 53.3% in 36 to 47 months of children. On the basis of MUAC 0.78% were severely malnourished and 17.19% children were moderately malnourished. The children who had low BMI for age were 18.8%. All types of undernutrition were prevalence among 5% of total children. The study found significant association between stunting and consumption of meat per week (P=0.01). There was significant association of wasting with mother occupation (P= 0.001), consumption of pulses per week (P= 0.011), order of breastfeeding (P=0.012), introduction of supplementary feeding (P=0.026) and birth order (P=0.001). The result has shown that underweight is associated with birth weight (P=0.022) and father occupation (P=0.042).