Dietary diversity score and socio-economic factors of stunting among pre-school children in Rajshahi city, Bangladesh

In the developing countries, stunting has been the most tenacious public health problem and is the major cause of child mortality and global disease burden, where 80% of this burden is found in developing countries and would result in 22% loss of adult income. The aim of this study was to investigate prevalence and determinant factors associated with stunting among pre-school children in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh. A multi-stage cross sectional study was performed during the period March 2017 to September 2017. One thousand and nine (1009) pre-school children (36≤ Age ≤71 months) were considered as our study population. Data were collected by using a pretested and semi-structured questionnaire, which consisted of socio-economic characteristics, dietary and feeding pattern related information. Stunting of a child was determined using the WHO Multicenter Growth Reference Standard. Chi-square test and multiple logistic regressions were carried out to identify determinants of stunting. The odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval was calculated to assess the strength of the association, and p-value of <0.05 were considered as statistically significant. Boys (52%) with mean age 53.56 ± 10.405 months and girls (48%) with mean age 51.67 ± 10.934 months were participated. The prevalence of stunting among the preschool children in Rajshahi City was 39.7% (5.4% severe, 24.9% moderate and 9.4% mild stunted). The odds of being stunted were illiterate mother, lower food purchasing capabilities, poor dietary diversity score (95% CI: 1.640-3.052; p<0.001), experiencing pre-lacteal (95% CI: 1.616-2.789; p <0.001), prevalence of disease frequency (95% CI: 1.62-3.56; p<0.01), poor socio-economic class (95% CI: 2.83- 9.51; p<0.01). J. bio-sci. 26: 31-40, 2018