The investigation of the causes of failure to thrive among children referred to health centers based on the health belief model

Abstract

IntroductionFailure to thrive (FTT) leads to more serious complications such as mortality-reduced learning and mental, emotional or physical disabilities. This study aimed to determine the causes of growth disorders among 3–6 years old children covered by health centers of Semnan. MethodsThis is a descriptive-analytical study which was conducted in Semnan in 2014. Two hundred children, 3–6 years of age, who referred to health centers, were selected and studied through stratified and random sampling in two groups: healthy group and group with failure to thrive. Mothers completed two questionnaires containing demographic and comprehensive information on the child feeding methods (CFPQ). By using CFPQ, child feeding method was evaluated from 12 aspects. SPSS 18 software was used for statistical analysis of data. ResultsTwo hundred children were studied. In which 51.2% were female and 48.8% were male. The majority of them were aged between 4–5 years old. Considering birth rank, all the children were of first birth. Majority of mothers (78.2%) were housewives, and majority of fathers were self-employed. There was a significant difference between the groups considering mothers’ level of education and failure to thrive (p<0.05). There was also a significant difference between household's income and failure to thrive between the groups (p<0.05). There was a significant difference between the groups considering model constructs such as perceived intensity (p=0.02%), perceived benefits (0.011%) and self-efficacy (0.01%). ConclusionThe results of this study showed that there is a significant association between social factors and failure to thrive. The findings also indicated that household size, income, mothers’ knowledge, perceived severity, and perceived benefits are associated with failure to thrive. Therefore, educational intervention for family planning is recommended for nutrition patterns in order to regulate household size and promote mothers’ knowledge and self-efficiency.