شیوع سوء تغذیه در کودکان زیر پنج سال شهر بیرجند در سال 1390

  Background and Aim: Malnutrition of children, which has undesirable effects on mental and physical health of them, is one of the important health problems throughout the world particularly in developing countries. Most of the studies about malnutrition in Iran have been done on the basis of NCHS standards, but, today it is recommended to do this kind of study according to new WHO standards. The aim of this study was to find out prevalence of malnutrition in under-5 year olds in Birjand city according to the recent standards.   Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was done on 480 under-5 year olds that selected through multistage cluster sampling method in Birjand city in 2011.At the same time of measuring height and weight, demographic data of the children (age, sex, birth order , and birth weight) were recorded in the questionnaires by interviewing their mothers .In order to study malnutrition ,three indices were used namely weight to age (underweight), weight to height (leanness), and height to age(shortness). The obtained data was analyzed by means of descriptive statistical methods and chi-square test, using SPSS software (V:15) , and a=0.05 was taken as the significant level.   Results: Out of 480 children 50.4% were males, 93.3% had birth weight ≥2500 gr, 56% were above 24 months. 57.7% were the first in birth order. According to the new WHO standards, Weight index showed that 93.7% were normal and 6.3% were underweight (5% moderately and 1.3% severely). Regarding stunting criteria, 90.2% were normal and 9/8 % were short (7.7% moderately and 2.1% extremely short). Prevalence of underweight and stunting was significantly higher in children with birth weight under 2500 gr (P<0.001). Wasting criteria showed that 99.2% were normal and 0.8% had moderate wasting.   Conclusion: According to the results and comparing them with those of similar studies, it is concluded that the nutritional status of under 5 year children in Birjand is appropriate. Regarding the significant relationship of underweight and stunting with low birth weight, more control on high risk pregnancy for reducing the rate of low birth weight infants and supportive nutritional and educational measures for these children are recommended.