the comparison of under-five-children’s nutrition status among ethnic groups in north of iran, 1998 - 2013; results of a three stages cross-sectional study

Background: despite improvements in child health, malnutrition still remains one of the main public health challenges in iran. objectives: the aim of this study was to compare under nutrition among under-five children with regard to ethnicity in rural area in north iran. patients and methods: in three cross-sectional studies 7575 subjects in three time-periods including 2339 children in 1998, 2749 in 2004, and 2487 in 2013, were evaluated. all under-five-children in 20 out of 118 villages were chosen by random sampling and assessed. under nutrition was defined as underweight, stunting and wasting lower than -2 sd (z < -2 sd). results: generally, stunting was declined 17.1% and underweight and wasting were increased 0.9% and 1%, respectively during 15 years (1998 - 2013). underweight increased 0.5% in fars-natives and 3.2% in turkmans and it was decreased 0.9% in sistanis. statistical difference in turkman children among the three stages of the study was significant (p = 0.001). stunting has decreased 28.7% in fars-natives and 35.1% in sistanis, it was increased 9.3% in turkman group. statistical differences among three stages in inter-ethnic groups were significant (p = 0.001 for all). compared the group with good economic status, the odds ratio was 1.831 in poor economic group (p = 0.001). the risk of under nutrition in sistanis was 1.754 times more than in fars-natives (p = 0.001). conclusions: under nutrition remains one of the main health problems in under-five-year children in north iran being more common in sistani children. stunting in sistani children deeply decreased while in turkman children slightly increased during the 15-year period study. poor economic status is a risk factor for under nutrition in this area.