ASSESSING THE FACTOR ASSOCIATED WITH NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF SUKUMBASI CHILDREN AGED 6-59 MONTHS IN KANAKAI MUNICIPALITY, JHAPA

Abstract

Malnutrition is a major health problem in developing countries like Nepal. It may have adverse effects on growth and development of an individual. Therefore, a community based cross-sectional study was conducted on 127 sukumbasi children aged 6-59 months of Kanakai municipality, Jhapa district. Anthropometric measurements (height, weight and MUAC) for children and structured questionnaires for mothers or caretakers were used to collect the data. WHO Anthro version 3.2.2 and statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 20 were used for analyzing the data. Chi-square test was used to assess factor associated with nutritional status of children. The result revealed that, 45.7%, 16.5% and 31.5%of children were stunted, wasted and underweight respectively. Out of 45.7% stunted children, 16.5% were severely stunted and 29.2% were moderately stunted. Severely and moderately wasted children were 7.1% and 9.4% respectively. Similarly, 10.2% children were severely underweight and 21.3% were moderately underweight. The main associated factors of stunting were found to be mother‟s education status (P=0.003) and child age group (P=0.002). Similarly, mother‟s education status was associated with both wasting (P=0.006) and underweight (P=0.001). From the findings of this study, it is concluded that malnutrition is still an important problem among children aged 6-59 months. It suggests implementing a suitable nutritional and health programs such as nutrition awareness program, hygiene and sanitation program, promoting breastfeeding and complementary feeding program. Regular assessing, analyzing and monitoring of nutrition situation should be done on this community for better nutritional status. Keywords: Malnutrition,