title: Determinants of stunting in school-aged children of tehran, iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Limited data are available indicating associates of stunting among Iranian children. This study was conducted to investigate determinants of stunting in first grade primary school children of Tehran in 2007.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this case-control study, 3147 school children were selected by multistage cluster random sampling method from 5 districts of Tehran. Anthropometric measurements were done and stunting was defined as height for age less than the 5(th) percentile of CDC2000 cut-off points. Eighty six stunted children were identified and considered as case group. After matching for age, sex and residence area, 308 non-stunted children were randomly selected as control group. Required data were collected by trained nutritionists using questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Stunting was prevalent among 3.7% of the study population (girls 4.4% vs. boys 2.8%, P < 0.05). Mean age of the studied children was 82.3 month. Children with a birth weight of >3000 g were less likely to be stunted (OR: 0.25: 95% CI: 0.11-0.54) compared with those with a birth weight of <3000 g. Being born to older mothers (>35 years) was associated with greater odds of being stunted (3.01; 1.19-7.60) compared with being born to younger mothers (<35 years). Those with fathers' height of >160 cm were less likely to be stunted (0.04; 0.005-0.37) than those whose fathers' height was less than 160 cm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found that birth weight, maternal age and fathers' height are the major contributing factors to stunting in this group of Iranian children. Taking into account the determinants of stunting might help policy makers designing appropriate interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Nutrition Policy and Planning Research, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Pediatrics Department, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences,Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Esfarjani
authors.forename: Roshanak
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roustaee
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Esmaillzadeh
keywords: Birth weight; breast feeding; children; stunting
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