Weight and height for age status of children aged 2-6 years old in southern part of Iran: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Stunting prevalence has been decreasing slowly; and it is reported that 165 million children were stunted in 2011.1 Under nutrition, consisting of fetal growth restriction, stunting, wasting, and deficiencies of vitamin A and zinc, along with sub optimum breastfeeding, underlies nearly 3.1 million deaths of children younger than 5 years annually worldwide, representing about 45% of all deaths in this group.2 Among 3542 Malaysian children aged 6 months to 12 years old the prevalence of low weight and height for age was 5.4% and 8.4%, respectively.3 The overall prevalence of stunting was 25.2% in urban areas of Indonesia (n=7211).4 Stunted growth reflects a process of failure to reach linear growth potential as a result of suboptimal health and/or nutritional conditions. On a population basis, high levels of stunting are associated with poor socioeconomic conditions and increased risk of frequent and early exposure to adverse conditions such as illness and/or inappropriate feeding practices. Similarly, a decrease in the national stunting rate is usually indicative of improvements in overall socioeconomic conditions of a country. The worldwide variation of the prevalence of low height-for-age is considerable, ranging from 5% to 65% among the less developed countries.5 Hoddinott6 suggested that there are consequences of short stature for adults. A 1-SD increase in HAZ was associated with more schooling (0.78 grades) and higher test scores for reading and nonverbal cognitive skills (0.28 and 0.25 SDs, respectively), characteristics of marriage partners (1.39 y older, 1.02 grade more schooling, and 1.01 cm taller). A 1-SD increase in HAZ was associated with increased household per capita expenditure (21%) and a lower probability of living in poverty (10 percentage points). Conversely, being stunted at 2 year was associated with less schooling, a lower test performance, a lower household per capita expenditure, and an increased probability of living in poverty.6 As these indicators are increasingly used in programmatic and research settings to improve children’s health this study aimed to determine the prevalence of short stature and wasting in children aged 2-6 years old in southern part of Iran and assess the relationship of child anthropometric outcomes and feeding pattern, birth weight and parents’ anthropometric measures.