Nutritional status of the preschool children of the Klong Toey slum, Bangkok.
A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the nutritional status of children (aged 1-5 years) who lived in the Klong Toey slum, Bangkok; the factors related to nutritional status were also determined. Anthropometric measurements were made for 232 children; socioeconomic background information was obtained by interviewing their mothers using a structured questionnaire. The prevalence of malnutrition among the study sample was 25.4% by weight-forage, 18.1% by height-for-age, and 6.9% by weight-for-height; the prevalence among pre-school children in Thailand and in the Bangkok metropolitan area by weight-for-age was reported to be 8.73% and 5.25% respectively. Potential related factors were examined: family characteristics, (mother's age, marital status, educational background, family size, family income, and mothers' occupation); children's characteristics (age, gender, birth order, immunization status, and history of illness); mothers' knowledge and perception of nutrition and mothers' food practice. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify the association with the nutritional status of children by height-for-age. The results showed that family income (adjusted OR=0.9998; 95% CI: 0.9997-1.0000), maternal housewifery or unemployment (adjusted OR=6.5; 95% CI: 1.74-24.3), food practice (adjusted OR=0.7123; 95% CI: 0.5390-0.9414), and a maternal educational level lower than primary school (adjusted OR=10.1; 95% CI: 1.13-91.9) were associated with the nutritional status of children. This finding implies that although malnutrition is no longer considered to be a major health problem in Thailand, it remains a threat to the health of the urban poor in Bangkok. This finding should not be overlooked and countermeasures are indicated.
Tada
Yuko
Y
ASEAN Institute for Health Development, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. yuko-t@tkk.att.ne.jp
Keiwkarnka
Boonyong
B
Pancharuniti
Nonglak
N
Chamroonsawasdi
Kanittha
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D015362:Child Nutrition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011204:Poverty Areas; D015995:Prevalence; D012306:Risk; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology