Nutritional status, feeding practice and incidence of infectious diseases among children aged 6 to 18 months in northern mountainous Vietnam

To assess the prevalence of undernutrition, incidence of infectiousdiseases and the situation of feeding practices to determine the risk factors for undernutritionamong children aged 6 to 18 months in rural Vietnam. Design : A cross-sectional studywas conducted among one hundred eighty-eight mother-child pairs in Bac Giang, Vietnam.Weight and height of the children were measured and referred to data from theWHO/CDC/NCHS. Incidence of infectious diseases was diagnosed based on the WHO RecommendedSurveillance Standards. Data on socio-demographic variables and feedingpractices were obtained through a structured questionnaire. Result : The prevalence ofunderweight, stunting and wasting was 19.7%, 23.4% and 5.3%, respectively. The incidenceof diarrhea and acute respiratory infections (ARIs) during the last 14 days of the interviewwas 12.2% and 20.2%, respectively. Although 99% of the children were breastfed, theprevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in the first 4 mo was 21.3%. Non-exclusive breastfeedingin the first 4 month (OR 3.95, p=0.025) and low birth weight (OR 4.38, p=0.009)were associated with underweight in the children, while incidence of infectious diseasewas not (OR 1.16, p=0.734). Conclusion : Undernutrition is highly prevalent in the studysite and non-exclusive breast feeding is one of the risk factors.