Nutritional status of children less than five years of age in Al-Amir Unit

Abstract

A cross sectional descriptive community based study was conducted at Al-Amir unit which is located in Umbadda locality to study the nutritional education and nutritional status of children under five years in 2002. The specific objectives of this study is to assess the level of nutritional status of children under five years, to study knowledge attitude and practices of mother regarding the feeding and to identify the factors related to the problem . A sample of 150 children was selected randomly using multi stage sampling according to the below equation n = Z 2PQ = 150 D2 Anthropometric measurement {Gomez classification of malnutrition as follows (90 – 110%) normal, (89 – 75%) mild malnutrition (74 – 60) moderate malnutrition and less than 60% severe malnutrition}, Questionnaire observation and focus group discussion are used for data collection data Analysis was conducted using SPSS. Finding of this study was concluded in: • (88.6%) of children are normal and (11.4%) are malnourished • (4.7%) of malnourished children are mildly, (4.7%) are moderately and 2%are severely malnourished. • (66.7%) of the malnourished children have no roads to health chart. • It revealed that all mothers agreed that they did not go to the health unit for growth monitoring after their children completes nine months, because at this time the child completes basic immunization doses, and they believe that there is no need for further monitoring . • The study showed that although most of mother knows of exclusive breast feeding • Only (24.3%) of those who were regularly followed up in the health units were provided with nutritional education sessions. • Age, educational level of mother , income ,family size … etc are a factors play role in malnutrition problem 5 Therefore, including children in nutritional program accompanied by intensive educational programs to improve their nutritional status is recommended