FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH NURITIONAL STATUS OF 6-59 MONTHS CHILDREN IN HARISIDDHI MUNICIPALITY, LALITPUR

Abstract

A community based cross sectional study was conducted among 144 children aged 6-59 months in Harisiddhi Municipality, Lalitpur. 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 analysing the data. Fisher exact test was used to identify the associated factors of malnutrition. The study revealed, 19.4%, 6.3% and 11.1% of children were stunted, wasted and underweight respectively. And 6.9% were found to be overweight. The main associating factor with stunting (p<0.05) was child‟s age group and family size. Underweight was found associated (p<0.05) with weight at birth and Vitamin A and deworming supplementation. Wasting was not found statistically significant with any factors. The result of this study indicates that the nutritional status of the children under study was slightly lower than the national average. However, the problem of over nutrition is emerging. To get better nutritional status of children, greater emphasis should be given to under five year children with community based awareness programs to mother and caregivers.