Comparison of the effectiveness of an intervention program to improve the nutritional status of children aged 2-6 years in Day Care Centers of East and West of Iran

Subject Areas :

Zahra Madani ¹ , Maryam Moussavi Jordi ² , Mina Minaie ³ , Ahmadreza Dorosty Motlagh ⁴ , Zahra Abdollahi ⁵ , Fariba Babaei ⁶ , Zahra Abasalti ⁷ , Ariyo Movahedi ^{8 *}

1 - Department of Nutrition, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University
2 - Department of Nutrition, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University
3 - Faculty of Nutrition & Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences| Community Nutrition Improvement Office of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education
4 - Faculty of Nutrition & Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences
5 - Community Nutrition Improvement Office of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education
6 - Community Nutrition Improvement Office of Urmia Medical University
7 - Biochemistry and Nutrition Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences
8 - Department of Nutrition, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University

Received: 2018-03-27 Accepted : 2018-06-12 Published : 2018-06-01

Keywords: Obesity, Overweight, Pediatric, Malnutrition, Underweight,

Abstract :

Child health is very vital in all societies, which is prejudiced by the interaction of numerous factors. Pediatric healthy nutrition is one of the most imperative and influential elements in the health of children which affects anthropometric indices. In this study, the effectiveness of one meal warm food for the rural kindergarten of two main cities in the East and West of I.R. Iran Urmia and Mashhad have been carried out. In this cross-sectional study, anthropometric z scores of 5508 children (2750, Urmia vs 2758, Mashhad) were measured by using WHO Anthro and Anthro plus software based on WHO 2007 standards and analyzed using SPSS. Based on the present findings, 16% of children from West and 15% of children from the East showed moderate to severe lower weight for height. In addition, girls showed more severe underweight than boys did. BMI-for-age children from the West and the East approximately showed 14% and 15% of moderate to severe underweight and dropped to about 9% and 12% respectively. Moreover, the percentage of overweight of children in the study was lightly changed to obese especially in boys from the West. Between the two genders, male and female, overweight in girls and obesity in boys found higher than the opposite sex, and relatively similar trends have continued after the intervention in the west. This project was successful to lower moderately severe wasting in children based on body mass index from 7% to about 5% in the west and from 6% to about 5% in the east too. The slight increase in the scale of overweight and obesity and a half percent of overweight children from the west after the program was shown. Even though boys from the West showed a higher increase of obesity than girls had more overweight than boys did, but there was no change before and after intervention in the east, reduction of moderate and severe underweight found similarly in both genders. Due to the relative success of the present intervention plan, nutritional education along these kinds of projects may improve the nutritional status of children in society and prevent pediatric malnutrition.

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