Dietary Intake and Socioeconomic Factors among a Group of Stunted Preschool Children in Cairo

Abstract

The optimal growth and development of infants and young children are fundamental for their future. Stunting is one of the most important public health problems in developing countries. This study explores the socio-economic determinants of stunting among a sample of under-five years children. Subjects & Methods: This study is a cross sectional descriptive one ,for which the study population was recruited from out patients clinic of stunting in Na-tional Nutrition Institute (NNI) after taking the ethical agreements of their par-ents. The study included 50 preschool children (31 boys and 19 girls). Their age ranged from 2-5 year both boys and girls was included. Their parents were interviewed by using special questionnaire for assessment of the socioeconomic factors. Anthropometric measurements were performed. Dietary Assessment was performed using 24H, recall and food frequency of selected food items. Re-sults: Among the sample, the children were 62%.boys and 38% girls. The cur-rent data showed inadequate dietary intake, as there was unsafe level of con-sumption of total calories and carbohydrate, vitamin A, calcium, zinc, unac-cepted level of consumption of protein and iron. The most important determina-ble socioeconomic factors of stunting were educational level, occupation, family size and family income. Conclusion: This study was successful in identifying priority nutrients for dietary intervention including total caloric intake, macro and some micronutrients This study also determine some of socioeconomic factors of stunting which were educational level, occupation, family size and family income.