Abstract
Objective:To determine the impact of maternal education, employment, and family size on nutritional status of children.Methods:It was case control study conducted at OPD of children Hospital Lahore, from September 2015 to April 2017. Total 340 children (170 cases and 170 controls) with age range of six months to five years along with their mothers were included. Anthropometric measurements were plotted against WHO growth Charts. 170 wasted (<-2 SD) were matched with 170 controls (≥ -2 SD). Maternal education, employment and family size were compared between the cases and control. Confounding variables noted and dichotomized. Univariate analysis was carried out for factors under consideration i.e.; Maternal Education, employment and family size to study the association of each factor. Logistic regression analysis was applied to study the independent association.Results:Maternal education had significant association with growth parameters; OR of 1.32 with confidence interval of (CI= 1.1 to 1.623). Employment status of mothers had OR of 1.132 with insignificant confidence interval of (CI=0.725 to 1.768). Family size had OR of one with insignificant confidence interval (CI=0.8 -1.21). Association remained same after applying bivariate logistic regression analysis.Conclusion:Maternal education has definite and significant effect on nutritional status of children. This is the key factor to be addressed for prevention or improvement of childhood malnutrition. For this it is imperative to launch sustainable programs at national and regional level to uplift women educational status to combat this ever increasing burden of malnutrition.
Highlights
Even at this day and age child malnutrition is one of the challenges being faced by developing countries.[1,2] Pakistan is one of those countries, which are striving hard to overcome this ever-increasing burden of malnutrition for many decades.[3]Child malnutrition is considered as the key risk factor for illness and death, contributing to more than half deaths of children globally.[4]
Comparison of maternal education, employment, and family size was done between cases and controls and odds ratio with confidence interval was determined
Abut 51.8% mothers were educated in cases as compared to 65.3% of educated mothers in control with Odds ratio (OR) of 1.316 and (CI= 1.1 to 1.623)
Summary
Even at this day and age child malnutrition is one of the challenges being faced by developing countries.[1,2] Pakistan is one of those countries, which are striving hard to overcome this ever-increasing burden of malnutrition for many decades.[3]Child malnutrition is considered as the key risk factor for illness and death, contributing to more than half deaths of children globally.[4]. Under nutrition especially in first 1000 days of life lead to stunted growth and impaired cognitive ability and poor educational attainment.[6,7]
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