Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Background: Malnutrition is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality of children. Malnourished children more than healthy children are at risk of illness and death. About 60%t of the more than 7 million deaths in children under 5 years has been attributed to the malnutrition. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of malnutrition in the city Salamas compared with Ravansar and Samirom cities.

Methods: The current study is a cross-sectional study which was conducted to determine the nutritional status of children under age of 5 in three Salamas, Ravansar and Samirom cities using ENA. The study was performed from 16th until 30th October, 2011 with the cooperation of the Office of Community Nutrition Improvement and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The data were entered to ENA software and according to WHO index, percentages of children with malnutrition (underweight, wasting, stunting) were calculated. Chi-square test was used for assess relationship between variables and with significant level of 0.05. Data analysis was by SPSS software V. 20.

Results: In Salmas, the rate of underweight, stunting, and wasting were 2.3%, 7.3% and 1.4% respectively. Wasting rate in boys was higher than girls and stunting and underweight rates in girls higher than boys but differences were not significant. The results showed that the prevalence of stunting in rural areas was higher than in urban areas, and this difference was significant (p<0.001).

Conclusion: This study showed that the prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting among girls and boys in the Samirom city was more than the other two regions. The underweight and wasting in Salmas city were less than the other two cities, while after Samirom city had higher stunting prevalence for both sexes