title: [Mother's ability of childcare and children malnutrition].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify and measure the risk of malnutrition associated to determining indicators of mother's ability of childcare: familial structure, education level, work, maternal physical and mental health.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case-control study was performed. Cases (101 children whose weight/age was below 5th percentile) and controls (200 children whose weight/age was above 25th percentile) were selected using anthropometric surveys during three vaccination campaigns in 1996 and 1997. Data was collected by interviewing the children's mothers at home. To detect the net effect of each factor studied, multivariate hierarchical analyses were carried out. The factors investigated and possible control variables were grouped in blocks, arranged according to order they affected the child's nutritional status. In order to identify the control variables a p<0.20 (univariate analyses) was assumed and to identify associations between a given factor and malnutrition a p<0.05 was assumed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Malnutrition risk factors identified are: (a) adverse familial structure, indicated by single parenting (OR=2.2; 95%CI, 1.1-4.5); (b) hospitalization of the mother during pregnancy (OR=3.5; 95%CI, 1.6-7.7); (c) mother's poor mental health, determined by the presence of 3 to 4 symptoms of depression included in the SRQ-20 (OR=3.1; 95%CI, 0.9-10.3); and (d) family stress factors, suggestive signs of alcoholism in at least one family member (OR=2.1; 95%CI, 1.2-3.9). In addition to these factors, child's age at the time the mother resumed/started working was also independently associated to malnutrition. However, it produced mixed effects: for children aged 4 to 12 months, the mothers' resuming work resulted in a protection factor whereas their resuming later tended to increase the risk of malnutrition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It was evidenced that the factors that define the mother's ability of child care affect the child's nutritional status.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Enfermagem, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Maria Antonieta de B L
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Carvalhaes
authors.forename: Maria Helena D'Aquino
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Benício
mesh_terms: D002654:Child Care / Q000592:standards*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population; D014931:Women, Working
vernacular_title: Capacidade materna de cuidar e desnutrição infantil.