Abstract
Objectives: To assess the nutritional status of mothers and children in a mountainous commune in Viet Nam
Method: This is a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2008 in mountainous commune-Phu Loc, in Ninh Binh province in Viet Nam.
To assess the nutritional status of children and mothers, we collected the weight and height (or length, if children were under 2 year old) of all children under 5 yearsold, school-aged children and mother of children under 5 in the commune. Assessment and classification of nutritional status were conducted based on WHO Child Growth Standards 2006 (for child 0-5 years old), WHO Reference 2007 (for child 5-19 years old) and WHO's standard of BMI index, applied for adult in Asia-Pacific region-2000 (for mothers of children under 5 years)
To assess the anemia rate, we used systematic random sampling method with mothers and children from 6 to 59 months of age as subjects. If the subjects were pregnant women, we selected all of them as this group is less than the sampling size. We took 20 ml of venous blood from subjects in the morning (fasting), and hemoglobin (Hb) concentration was determined by the Cyanmethemoglobine method. We used the standard WHO-2002 cut-off point for hemoglobin concentration in the blood by age, sex and physical condition to diagnose anemia.
Results: Undernutrition among children under 5 years of age was high with stunting prevalence (height for age z-score below -2SD) at 31.6% and underweight prevalence (weight for age z-score below -2SD) at 21.1%. The stunting prevalence in school-aged children (primary and secondary school) was 21.2%. The prevalence of Chronic Energy Deficiency (BMI≤18.5) in mothers of child under 5 years of age was 19.5%, while the overweight prevalence (BMI≥) was 8.0%. The Anemia prevalence was high for all groups with rates for pregnant woman, mothers of children under 5 years and children from 6-59 months at 36.7%, 22.2%, and 32.4% respectively.
Conclusion: The nutritional status of mothers and children in the assessed mountainous commune was poor with high rates of stunting in children and high rates of anemia in all for children, pregnant women and mothers of children under 5 years of age. It is necessary to develop a comprehensive intervention program in order to improve the nutritional status of mothers and children in this commune in the coming years.
