Malnutrition and anemia status of children under 5 years old in poverty rural areas of Gansu Province

Objective To analyze malnutrition and anemia status and its possible influence factors among children under 5 years old in poverty rural areas of Gansu Province,and provide evidence for establishment of children nutrition related policies.Methods 1398 subjects were selected by multistage cluster sampling to analysis the nutrition status.The situation of malnutrition and anemia of children were evaluated by Z-scores and hemoglobin concentration,and its influence factors were tested by logistic regression analysis.The data were analyzed by software SPSS 13.0.Results The ratio of low birth weight was 5.4%,and there were 15.1% and 31.1% of children suffered from diarrhea and respiratory diseases in the previous two weeks.The ratios of breast feeding,mixed feeding and artificial feeding of children under six months old were 45.3%,43.2% and 11.4%,respectively.Stunting prevalence of children was 11.7%,underweight prevalence was 7.8%,wasting prevalence was 6.6% and anemia prevalence was 11.7%,differences of the stunting,underweight,wasting and anemia prevalence of children in different months of age groups had statistical significance(P0.01).The stunting prevalence of 24-36 months group was the highest,and the peak of underweight,wasting and anemia prevalence was 6-12 months group,there was no difference in gender in different months groups(P0.05).According to multiple factor analysis results,birth weight was the influence factor of stunting(OR=1.001),the influence factors of underweight were months of age(OR=1.019) and birth weight(OR=1.001),the influence factors of wasting were months of age(OR=1.054),birth weight(OR=1.001) months of age was the influence factor of anemia(OR=1.029).Conclusion Malnutrition and anemia of children under 5 years old were still serious health problems in poverty rural areas of Gansu Province,we should take comprehensive intervention measures according to the characteristics of each age group to improve the nutritional and healthy status of children in poverty rural areas.