Abstract
BackgroundAlthough several studies have examined the link between different food groups intake and stunting among children, no study, to our knowledge, was done on exceptional children. The aim of this study was assessed the association of dietary intake and stunting in Iranian exceptional children.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted on 470 exceptional children (226 mentally retarded, 182 deaf and 62 blind children), aged 5–15 years. Height was measured using standard tool. Stunting was defined as height-for-age z-score of <-1. A validated dietary habit questionnaire was applied to assess dietary intakes.ResultsMean age of children was 10.02 ± 2.04 years. Stunting was prevalent among 50.6% of children. Compared with children in the lowest category of dairy consumption, those in the highest category had lower odds of stunting. This association remained significant even after adjusting for covariates (OR: 0.50, 95% CI: 0.29–0.87). In addition, moderate consumption of egg (1–3 time/wk) was inversely associated with stunting either before or after controlling for potential confounders (OR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.21–0.64). Such finding was also seen among mentally retarded children (OR: 0.38, 95% CI: 0.16–0.89). No other significant association was seen between intakes of other food groups (including meat, fruits and vegetables) and stunting.ConclusionsWe found that higher intake of dairy products and egg was associated with lower risk of stunting. However, intakes of other food groups including meat, fruits and vegetables were not significantly related to stunting.
Highlights
Several studies have examined the link between different food groups intake and stunting among children, no study, to our knowledge, was done on exceptional children
To obtain the overall trend of odds ratios (OR) across increasing categories of dietary intakes, we considered these categories as an ordinal variable in the logistic regression models
In terms of dietary intakes, mentally retarded children had greater intake of vegetables, meat, red meat and white meat compared with other children
Summary
Several studies have examined the link between different food groups intake and stunting among children, no study, to our knowledge, was done on exceptional children. It has been shown that environmental factors, in particular diet, have an important role in stunting [5] It can be developed from inadequate intake of food, inappropriate quality of diet, or a combination of both [6]. Less attention has been laid down on the consumption of food groups including dairy, meat, vegetables and fruits in Nachvak et al BMC Pediatrics (2020) 20:394 relation to stunting in children. These food groups contain a high amount of fibers, antioxidants and essential minerals including magnesium, calcium and iron [10, 6]. Assessing the association between consumption of these food groups and height growth might present new strategies to prevent stunting
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