prevalence and determinants of under-nutrition among children under six: a cross-sectional survey in fars province, iran

background childhood malnutrition as a major public health problem among children in developing countries can affect physical and intellectual growth and is also considered as a main cause of child morbidity and mortality. the objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of under-nutrition and identify determinants of malnutrition among children under 6 years of age in fars province, iran.   methods this survey was conducted by house to house visit through multi-stage sampling in 30 cities of fars province, during december 2012 to january 2013. a total of 15408 children, aged 0–6 years old, were studied for nutritional assessment in terms of underweight, stunting, and wasting. also, socio-demographic measures were obtained from structured questionnaire. backward stepwise logistic regression was used to relate underlying factors to the odds of under-nutrition indices.   results the rates of stunting, underweight, and wasting were 9.53, 9.66, and 8.19%, respectively. male children were more stunted compared to females (or= 1.41, ci: 1.26–1.58). also, stunting was significantly associated with lower family income (or= 3.21, ci: 1.17–8.85) and lower maternal education (or= 0.80, ci: 0.64–0.98). living in urban areas, and poor water supply were identified as significant risk factors of all three types of childhood under-nutrition. moreover, khamse and arab ethnic groups were more vulnerable to under-nutrition. there was a suggestion that non-access to health services were associated with wasting (or= 1.87, ci: 1.39–2.52) and also large family size was related to underweight (or= 1.35, ci: 1.10–1.65).   conclusion the prevalence of under-nutrition in the study population was categorized in low levels. however, planning the public preventive strategies can help to control childhood under-nutrition according to underlying factors of malnutrition in the study population including gender, settlement area, family size, ethnicity, family income, maternal education, health services, and also safe water supply.