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Factors Affecting Nutritional Status of Preschool Children in Selected BIDANI Areas
Thesis Abstract:
The study used secondary data from benchmark surveys of the Barangay Integrated Approach for Nutritional Improvement of the Rural Poor (BIDANI) covering 26 barangays (villages) in the province of Laguna, Philippines. The study aimed to determine selected socioeconomic, demographic, food-related, health, and sanitation factors affecting nutritional status of preschool children in selected BIDANI areas.
Sample households were selected through cluster random sampling based on the major source of livelihood of the household that had at least one preschooler aged 3-83 months. Seven occupational groups were identified, namely: small farmers, sma ll fishermen, non-regular employees, small businessmen, ski lled contract workers, personal service workers, and professionals. The respondents were also grouped according to ecological and geographical settings.
On the average, without considering the occupational groups of the households and their ecological and geographical settings, 12.8 percent of the sample's preschoolers were underweight (below 75% of the standard weight for age) and 13.5 percent were wasted (below 85% standard weight for height). There were 4.9 percent stunted preschoolers (below 90% of the standard height for age). Among the occupational groups, small farmers, skilled contract workers, non-regular employees, and small fi shermen households were classified as high-risk groups because of the prevalence of underweight (above 10%) or stunted (above 5%) preschoolers.
There were more underweight preschoolers in the rural areas (14.8%) than in urban areas (I 0.9% ); on the other hand, stunting were higher among preschoolers in urban than in rural areas (5.2 vs. 4.7%, respectively). The prevalence ofwasting was higher among preschoolers in upland areas ( I 9.5%) than in coastal (6.9%) and lowland areas (12.9%), while stunting was higher among preschoolers in lowland areas (6.9%) than in upland (6.3 %) and coastal areas (3.2%).
Among occupational groups, the small fishermen had the highest percentage of preschoolers with marginal level of energy (68.4%) and iron intake (60% ). Personal service workers had the highest percentage (36.4% ) of preschoolers with marginal level of protein intake, while non-regular employee groups had the highest percentage (82.8 %) of preschoolers with marginal level of vitamin A deficiency.
The chi-square analysis showed significant (P<0.01) relationship between occupation of parents, type of infant feeding, participation in community organization and training, and source of water for drinking and general use versus nutritional status of preschool children.
There were also significant (P<0.01) relationships between energy and protein, vitamin A, and iron intake versus the nutritional status of preschoolers. The other variables, namely: household size, colostrum feeding, weaning age, combination of supplementary food, food taboo, involvement in food production, capital investment and land ownership, participation in projects, garbage disposal, kitchen sewage, type of toilet, and health-related factors were found not to be significantly related to the nutritional status of the preschoolers.
Spearman Correlation Coefficients indicated that education of father (r= 0.12 at P<0.01) and mother(r= 0.08 at P<0.05), and household income (r = 0.06 at P<0.10) were positively correlated with the nutritional status of preschoolers (weight for age). However, household size was not significantly correlated with the nutritional status of the preschoolers.