malnutrition prevalence study in the 2-6 years old children in kerman rural kindergartens, kerman, iran, 2012

Infants and young children are the most vulnerable groups to malnutrition. malnutrition can cause child growth disorders. child growth measurement is a basic instrument to measure child malnutrition. this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of malnutrition among 2-6 year old children in kerman rural kindergartens. this descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 1154 children under 6 years old. weight and height were measured using a standard instrument and method. data entry was performed by spss version 18. it is recommended to assess child growth in developing countries by using who anthro software. so, weight, height and bmi for age indicators were calculated by who anthro software based on z-score. for data analysis, t-test and x2 test were applied accordingly. 1154 children (597 boys and 557 girls, mean age 58.4±10 months) were evaluated. severe, medium and mild stunting (defined as height for age below the -1z-score) prevalence was observed in 1.6%, 5.5% and 19.1% of children respectively. severe, medium and mild underweight (defined as weight for age below the -1z-score) prevalence was observed in 0.7%, 6.7% and 26% of children respectively. severe, medium and mild wasting (defined as bmi for age below the -1z-score) prevalence was observed in 1.3%, 9.5% and 25.6% of children respectively. overweight (defined as bmi for age above the +2z-score) and obesity (defined as bmi for age above the +3z-score) were observed in 4.5% and 2.4% of children respectively. no significant difference for malnutrition prevalence was observed between boys and girls (p>0.05). findings show that underweight and wasting prevalence in studied children based on who criteria is high. thus, reducing malnutrition in rural children of kerman should be considered as a health priority in this community.