The effect of maternal employment on the nutritional status of pre-school children

Abstract

Background: Children contribute to the vital human potential and impart strength to the national economy and development. The major determinants of the nutritional status of these children were age, household income, number of children in the family, duration among them, education of the parents, poor personal hygiene, unsatisfactory environmental conditions, and poor sanitary facilities. Aim and Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of maternal employment on the nutritional status of pre-school children. Materials and Methods: Weight and height of children were measured using digital weighing machine and stadiometer respectively. Data were stored on the WHO Anthro software package that was used in calculating anthropometric indices. The program uses figures from the national center for health statistics and centers for disease control and prevention, Atlanta (NCHS/CDC) as an international reference population. A questionnaire is used to assess the employment status of mother. Results: Children those who have had employed mothers showed 11% stunted (P = 0.4616), 30.3% (P < 0.0001) wasting, and 31.8% (P < 0.0001) underweight compared to unemployed mothers of middle-class family. Conclusion: In middle-class families, women work outside to fulfill their basic needs, but they fail to provide care to their children. It has been proved that financial crisis as well as lack of care leads to malnutrition in children those who have employed mothers when compared to unemployed mothers among middle class families.