الگوي مصرف مواد غذايي و وضعيت رشد كودكان پيش دبستاني مهد كودك هاي تبريز

Background and Objectives: Malnutrition is one of the most important public health problems that affects millions of children in the world. Poor socioeconomic status and food intake are the major causes of malnutrition in developing countries. Materials and Methods: In order to assess the relation of food consumption and growth status of preschool children, 400 children from governmental and private child care centers in Tabriz were selected then weight and height measured. Results: Results showed that mild and moderate malnutrition on the base of NCHS were as 51.9% , 46.1% and 47.6% for weight for age, height for age and weight for height, respectively. These proportions on the base of z-score were 6.1%, 7.6% and 1.55%, respectively. Significant relationship was found only for height for age and sex (p=0.0256). The highest prevalence of underweight was related to 5-6 year - old children (103%) while stunting and wasting belonged to children less than 4 years old (13.7% and 3.7%, respectively). Mean frequency of essential food groups per week for studied children were less than recommended value and no significant difference was found between types of child care centers and consumption of food groups. Significant correlation was observed between mothers, education with mean frequency of meat, vegetable and fruit consumption and age of the children (p=0.023). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that growth status and mean consumption of basic four food groups of preschool children in Tabriz are not desirable.