Predictors of Stunting among Children Aged 0-59 Months in a Rural Region of Armenia: A Case-Control Study. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2015 Jul 4.
Authors: Demirchyan A1, Petrosyan V, Sargsyan V, Hekimian K.
OBJECTIVES: The prevalence of stunting in Armenia more than doubled since 1990 s. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and predictors of stunting among under-5 children in a rural region of Armenia – Talin, targeted by World Vision (WV) nutrition interventions.
METHODS: Anthropometric measurements were conducted among a large representative sample of children 0-59 months old to identify the prevalence of stunting. Children identified as stunted where included in a case-control study as cases and compared with normally growing controls randomly selected from the same pool of children. Mothers of cases and controls were interviewed. Logistic regression analysis was applied to identify the predictors of stunting.
RESULTS: Of 739 measured children, 101 (13.7%) were undernourished, including 94 (12.7%) stunted. The fitted logistic regression model identified seven independent predictors of stunting, of which four were protective: mother’s height, child’s birth length, number of child’s hand washings per day, and the full set of WV interventions carried out in the community, while three were risk factors: never/rarely using soap during handwashing, being the fourth or later child in the family, and family size.
CONCLUSIONS: The study findings suggest that although WV nutrition interventions have shown impact, there is also a non-nutritional pathway of child stunting in rural Armenia. Thus, anti-stunting interventions should include sanitation and hygienic measures along with adequate perinatal care and maternal and child nutrition to further reduce childhood stunting ensuring long-term health benefits for children not only in rural Armenia, but also in rural communities in other low/middle-income countries.
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