Factors associated with malnutrition among under five-year-old children in Iran: A systematic review

Abstract

Background: Children are one of the most important population groups in the world and malnutrition is considered as one of death causes among them, especially those under 5 years old. The aim of our study was to conduct a systematic review of malnutrition and its associated factors among under five-year-old children of Iran. Materials and Methods: Data were collected through searching electronic databases and searching motors of PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Google Scholar, Scientific Information Database, Magiran and IranMedex using key words of “malnutrition,” “under-nutrition,” “stunting,” “underweight,” “wasting,” “factor,” “children,” “under 5 years,” “Iran,” and their Persian synonyms. Some of the relevant journals and websites were hand searched. Results: Of 608 preliminarily retrieved articles, 36 were selected for the final phase of the study. The most important factors related to underweight were mother's education level, father's education level, and birth weight. In regard to wasting, gender was one of the main factors and the next four were living location, birth weight, mother's, and father's education levels. Mother education level, father education, gender, birth weight, and age group were mentioned as the most important factors resulting in stunting as well. Conclusions: In some regions with low socioeconomic status, especially rural areas, the focus should be on the improvement of households living conditions such as mothers' and children's nutrition. Improvement in parents' education, particularly mothers' education, can have a significant impact on children's health. Under 5 years old girls need more attention than boys regarding to their poorer indicators.