Growth and development and its related factors among rural children aged 6-24 months in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Objective To investigate the growth and development and its related factors among the rural children aged 6-24 months in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and to provide reference for the improvement of the children's health. Methods A questionaire survey was conducted among the parents of 1 198 children aged 6-24 months selected randomly with stratified cluster sampling form eight towns in two counties of Guangxi.The height and weight of the children were measured by nuiformly trained personnel and were evaluated based on the study of nine cities in China,2005. Results The prevalence of malnutrition was 21.9% among the children and was lower than the average level of the nine cities. The prevalences of underweight and stunting were 16.2% and 13.5%,and increased with the age among the children.There were significant differences in malnutrition and stunting among the young children of different month of age.The results of multivariate logistic regression indicated that aged 12 months or more,second or late parity,and drinking unboiled water were the risk factors and normal delivery was a protective factor for malnutrition among the children. Conclusion The prevalences of low weight and stunting are relative high and preterm infants and children of second or late parity are at a high risk of malnutrition among the children in rural areas of Guangxi.