Assessment of nutritional status among children under five years of age in Manamaiju VDC of Kathmandu District, Nepal

Abstract Introduction: The nutritional status among under the age of five in terms of stunting, underweight and wasting and to find the association between nutritional status with selected variables. A descriptive cross-sectional study was done to determine prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting among under five children and factors associated with that. Descriptive, univariate indices such as stunting, underweightandwasting determined as Height for Age, weight for age and respectively. Methods: The study was conducted in Manamaiju VDC with 56440 populations with 3742 under 5 children. Research design was descriptive cross sectional. Total sample size was 190 tools used are semi structured and face to face interview. Data collection was within 4 week (23rd chaitra 2070 to 20th Baisakh 2071). Data was analyzed by SPSS version 13.0 for Windows and ENA for SMART. Similarly, Chi square test was applied at 5% level of significance to show the association between nutritional status and selected variables as age group of children, occupation of mother, education of mother, immunization, vitamin A capsule supplementation, deworming tablets and colostrum milk feeding. Results: This study finding is that the nutritional statuses of children in term of stunting were 32 %, in term of underweight 26% and wasting were 22% so the wasting found to be double in reference to current scenario. Similarly, associations of the variables with nutritional status were analyzed. The study found that Vitamin A supplementation, deworming tablets and colostrum milk feeding had statistically significant effect on wasting status and feeding of colostrum milk had statistically significant effect on underweight status. Conclusion: From this study it can be showed the prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting among under five children in Manamaiju VDC. National average given by NDHS, 2001 except the prevalence of wasting which is almost similar. Similarly regarding the association within selected variables i.e. Age group of children, Immunization, Mother’s Education level, Vitamin A supplementation, Deworming tablets and Colostrum feeding practices have significant effect on wasting status and underweight too but not on stunting and underweight. This analysis shows further need of research to explore the more regarding the nutritional status among the under five children in this community.This study showed that 41%, 29% and 11% children were stunted, underweight and wasted. Keywords: stunting, underweight and wasting, nutritional status