Nutritional Assessment of Pre-School Children in Rural Villages of the Family Dynamics, Lifestyles and Nutrition Study (1997-2001) II. Prevalence of Undernutrition and Relationship to Household Socio- Economic Indicators (original) (raw)

Abstract

This paper describes the nutritional status of pre-school children and analyzes its relationship to various household socio-economic indicators. Padi, rubber and fishing villages from the Functional Groups Study (1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996) were selected for having a high prevalence of child undernutrition, and all children between the ages of 12 and 72 months were measured for their weights and heights in April-May 1998. The NCHS reference values were used to calculate zscores, which were categorised according to WHO (1983) recommendations. Children between minus 2SD and minus 1SD of reference median were classified as mildly malnourished. Prevalence of underweight was higher (30.5%) than stunting (22.3%), while wasting was only 9.7%. Padi villages had the highest prevalence of undernutrition, followed by fishing, and then rubber villages. Mean household incomes were found to be significantly lower for children with worse nutritional status, and undernutrition was higher in households below the poverty line income. The odds ratios for having stunted children were significantly higher for households whose heads were agricultural own-account workers (OR 3.66, 95% CI = 1.37-9.79), agricultural waged workers (OR 2.75, 95% CI = 1.06-7.10), and non-agricultural manual workers (OR 2.49, 95% CI = 1.04-6.00) compared to non-manual workers. Various household socio-economic indicators showed significantly higher odds ratios for underweight, stunting and wasting. After adjusting for confounding effects by logistic regression analysis, however, only mother's education was found to be a significant predictor for stunting, while poverty level and access to piped water supply were significant predictors for both underweight and stunting. Households without livestock were significant predictors for wasting. Thus, this study identified specific socio-economic factors that should be prioritized for policy and research towards the amelioration of childhood malnutrition in rural areas.

Loading...

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

References (12)

  1. Chee HL, Khor GL & Tee ES (1997). Nutritional assessment of rural villages and estates in Peninsular Malaysia: I Socio-economic profile of households. Malaysian J of Nutr 3(1): 1-19.
  2. Chee HL, Khor GL, Fatimah A, Wan Abdul Manan WM, Ahmad Affendi S, Asnalrulkhadi AS, Rohani A, Siti Jamilah B, Zahid E & Zamaliah MM (2002). Nutritional assessment of preschool children in rural villages of the family dynamics, lifestyles and nutrition study (1997-2001): I. Socio-economic status of households. Malaysian J of Nutr 8(1): 13-31
  3. Chong YH, Tee ES, Ng TKW, Kandiah M, Hanis H, Teo PH & Siti Mizura S (1984). Status of community nutrition in poverty kampungs. Institute for Medical Research (IMR) Bulletin No. 22. Kuala Lumpur: IMR.
  4. DeRose L, Messer E & Millman S (1998). Who's Hungry? And How Do We Know? Food Shortage, Poverty and Deprivation. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
  5. Khor GL & Tee ES (1997). Nutritional assessment of rural villages and estates in Peninsular Malaysia: II Nutritional status of children aged 18 years and below. Malaysian J of Nutr 3(1): 21-47.
  6. Mason JB, Hunt J, Parker D, & Jonsson U (2001). Improving child nutrition in Asia. Food and Nutrition Bulletin 22 (3): 1-85 (supplement).
  7. Norhayati M, Noorhayati MI, Mohammod CG et al. (1997). Malnutrition and its risk factors among children 1-7 years old in rural Malaysian communities. Asia Pacific J Clin Nutr 6(4): 260-264.
  8. Osmani SR (1997). Poverty and nutrition in South Asia. In Nutrition & Poverty: Papers from the ACC/SCN 24 th Session Symposium, Kathmandu, March 1997. ACC/SCN Symposium Report, Nutrition Policy Paper No. 16, November 1997.
  9. Soon SD & Khor GL (1995). Taraf pemakanan kanak-kanak berumur satu hingga enam tahun di FELDA Sg. Koyan, Pahang. Malaysian J of Nutr 1(2): 115-128.
  10. UNICEF (1998). The State of the World's Children 1998. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  11. World Health Organization (WHO) (1983). Measuring change in nutritional status: Guidelines for assessing the nutritional impact of supplementary feeding programmes for vulnerable group. Geneva: WHO.
  12. Zamaliah Mohd Marjan, Mohd Nasir MT, Khor GL & Tee ES (1998). Socio-economic determinants of nutritional status of children in rural Peninsular Malaysia. Asia Pacific J Clin Nutr 7(3/4): 307-310.s