Nutritional status of children under 5 years in Sheikh-Omar center in Baghdad city

الملخص EN

Malnutrition is still a big health problem in our country.

Malnutrition is any disorders of nutrition.

It may result from an unbalanced, insufficient, or excessive diet or from impaired absorption of food.

To get a measure of malnutrition in a population, young children and infant, they can be weighed and measured and the results are compared with references to known if they have grown well.

Measuring weight and height is the most common way of assessing malnutrition in a population.

The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of malnutrition on and to explore it’s contributing factors among children under 5 years of age in Baghdad governorate in 2016.

Samples were collected from primary health care centers of Sheikh - Omar center in Baghdad city.

The total number of samples was (248) that were chosen from Sheikh - Omar center.

The nutritional status was assessed by measuring weight for age.

Prevalence of malnutrition has been found to be higher among male children with age of less than one year.

Prevalence of malnutrition has been found to be higher among crowding index of 5 or more person per room, age of less than one year at adding supplementary foods.

Finally, the malnutrition was higher among children with artificial feeding during the first six months of age