The Most Important Factors Affecting Anthropometric Indices in Newborns of Bojnord in 2001

Abstract

Introduction: Identifying factors influencing infants' anthroponmetric indices is very important in improving maternal and neonatal health levels. The present analytical discriptive study has been done to determine the significant factors affecting the nutritional status of infants in Bojnord. Method: In this servey done in 2001 a total number of 566 infants and their mothers were studied. The independent variables included gender of infant, the intrauterine age of infant, birth rank, interval of last delivery, history of abortion or stillbirth, disired or undesired pregnancy, age of mother, mother's weight near delivery time, mother's height, pregnancy awareness time, mother's nutritional knowledge, attitude and practice during the pregnancyresidency area of family, number of family members, and occupation and educational status of parents. The dependent variables included weight for age, height for age, weight for height, and head circumference for age. Conclusion: The most important factors affecting infants' nutritional status were maternal variables. Data gathered by using observation and interview and invariable analysis methods were used to study the effect of independent variables on body measurements. The simultaneous effect of these variables on infant's nutritional status were studied through doing some multivariable analyses and using the Regression Logistic Model. Results: Results showed that despite the simultaneous effect of variables impacting on nutritional status of weight for age, mother's height has the most significant effect on this parameter (P = 0.033 ), in a way that the odds ratio of malnutrition of weight for age in infants whose mothers are less than 150 cm high is 5.5 times more than those whose mothers are 150 cm high or more. Furthermore, the variables of mother's weight in delivery time (P=0.037) and mother's nutritional attitude ( P = 0.044 ) on malnutrition of height for age, variables of infant's gender (P=0.004) and nutritional practice of mother ( P = 0.03 ) on malnutrition of weight for height, variables of mother's height (P=0.014) and mother's age ( P = 0.006 ) on malnutrition of head circumference for infant's age had the most significant effects.