Influence factors of malnutrition among rural children aged 5 years in Hebei province

Objective To explore influence factors of malnutrition among children aged ≤ 5 years in the rural areas of Hebei province.Methods Information on all rural children aged ≤ 5 years were extracted from the Database of 5th National Health Services Survey (2013) in Hebei province and weight-for-age z-score was used to describe status quo of nutrition of the children.Then the children with abnormal and normal nutrition were assigned into a case and a control group and the influence factors for nutrition were compared between the two groups.Results The prevalences of nutrition deficiency,normal nutrition,and overweight or obesity among the children were 20.74%,51.76%,and 27.50%,respectively.Multivariate analyses showed that with a father migrating for work was a risk factor for nutrition deficiency(odds ratioOR=5.29,P<0.001),while higher average annual net income per capita of a family was a protective factor of nutrition deficiency among the children; father's migration for working (OR=9.82,P<0.001) and maternal migration for working (OR=4.22,P=0.044) were risk factors for overweight or obesity,whereas breastfeeding reduced the risk of overweight or obesity (OR=0.59,P=0.029) among the children.Conclusion Long-term parental migration for working exerts adverse effects on nutrition status among rural children aged ≤ 5 years; better family economic status may reduce the probability of nutrition deficiency while breastfeeding may prevent overweight or obesity among the children.