Risk factors for underweight children aged 6-24 months in Quang Ngai province, Vietnam

• Main Authors: Ho Dae Chien, Jiraporn Chompikui, Santhat Sermsri, เฉียน โฮดัก, จิราพร ชมพิกุล, สันทัด เสริมศรี
• Other Authors: Mahidol University. ASEAN Institute for Health Development
• Format: Original Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: nutritional status; food provision; underweight; children aged 6-24 months; Vietnam; ภาวะโภชนาการ; พฤติกรรมการให้อาหารบุตร; ภาวะน้ำหนักต่ำกว่าเกณฑ์อายุ; เด็กอายุ 6-24 เดือน; เวียดนาม
• Online Access: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/62185
• Institution: Mahidol University

A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine significant risk factors associated with underweight status among children aged 6-24 months in Quang Ngai province, Vietnam. The study factors included parental socio-demographic factors, maternal knowledge, food provision practices, and maternal and child health care. Multistage stratified sampling was used to select 250 mothers who had children aged from 6 to 24 months. After the mothers consented to participate in this study, they were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Their children were measured for weight and height. The statistics used were the Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression. Nearly 31 % of the children were underweight. The Chi-square test indicated the following factors separately significantly influenced the likelihood of children being underweight: parental education, family income, child birth weight, maternal knowledge (regarding food provision and child growth monitoring), frequency of essential food provision, orange juice provision, separation of food for children, amount of food eaten, the number of prenatal checkups, medical checkups before delivery, d ation of day sleep, washing mother's hands before preparing food, drinking oral rehydration solution, and having latrines. When adjusted for iodized salts and other factors, children who were fed protein inappropriately. had a 2.18 times greater risk of being underweight than those who were appropriately fed. Appropriate feeding programs focusing on protein and iodized salt provision and raising maternal awareness of maternal and child health care should be implemented, especially for high-risk groups to reduce the prevalence of underweight children.