Effect of Dezful’s Day Care Center interventional program to fight malnutrition and improvement of anthropometric indices among preschool children

One of the most important irresistible world wiles is to supply adequate and appropriate nourishment for children. According to malnutrition spectrum, undernutrition and overnutrition are placed in the two ends of the malnutrition spectrum, which carries on as a key public health issue in developing countries including Iran. Undernutrition complications including, wasting, stunting and underweight are related to delayed mental development, faltered growth and reduction of intellectual capacity. For 436 participants, anthropometric Zscores, including weight for height Zscore (WHZ), weight for age Zscore (WAZ), height for age Z score (HAZ), and BMI for age Zscore (BAZ) were added by using Anthro V.3.2.4 and for above 5 years old using Anthro Plus V.1.04 software of the World Health Organization. All of these data classified based on WHO child growth standards guideline. In this study, SPSS was used for statistical analysis. In this interventional study of 26 years old children living in Dezful (in the western south part of Iran), among the total study population that surveyed, about %6 had moderate to severe wasting before the intervention which was decreased to about 5% after the intervention. Obesity and overweight did not show a significant difference based on scale. The most remarkable results to emerge from the data is that there was a significant association for the following status: Weight, height, body mass index (BMI), WHZ, WAZ, and BAZ while comparing after intervention with baseline. Whereas, there was no significant association for HAZ which is interpreted as stunting. All of the anthropometric indices were increased after intervention vs baseline. Nutritional education must be conducted more seriously for both healthcare professionals in day care centers and mothers of children. Consequently, intervention program to improve the nutritional status of children aged 26 years in day care centers must be promoted and continued to disappear or at least fight against malnutrition. Furthermore, due to no national studies have been planned for the nutritional status of adolescent and adult individuals, in near future, this kind of intervention should be managed for these age groups.