Risk factors for stunting among children: a community based case control study in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: Stunting, a chronic condition, is an underlying cause of child morbidity and mortality in Nepal. This study intends to identify the factors causing stunting among children that will help to prioritize the strategies at the district level. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to identify the risk factors for stunting among children of age between 6 to 59 months. METHODS: The study was based on community-based case control design in the mid-west, Surkhet Nepal from August to September 2010. The cases were stunted children and controls were the children without stunting. Data was collected by interviewing those children's mothers and measured length/height of 118 children as cases and 236 children as controls. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the best model of factors leading to stunting. Odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were used as a measure of association. RESULTS: Socio-economic risk factors for stunting comprised mothers without earning (OR=3.11, 95% CI 1.26-7.65), food deficit families (OR=4.26, 95% CI 1.73-10.45) and care taker of the children other than mother (OR=3.02, 95% CI 1.19-7.70). Environmental risk factors for stunting consisted of kitchen without ventilation and children exposed to pesticide. Inappropriate exclusive breast feeding (OR=6.90, 95% CI 2.81-16.97), complementary feeding less than four times a day (OR=3.60, 95% CI 1.32-9.95) and dietary diversity below WHO standard (OR=4.06, 95% CI 1.70-9.67) were factors of stunted children. Diarrhea was found significantly associated with stunting (OR=7.46, 95% CI 2.98-18.65). CONCLUSIONS: Stunting was found to be as a result of multiple factors such as socio-economic, environmental and inappropriate feeding practices.

People's perspective on access to health care services in a rural district of Nepal.

INTRODUCTION: Over the past several decades, Nepal has attempted to increase the access of health care services, however progress toward achieving high coverage of health care services in rural communities is still low. Therefore this study attempts to provide a perspective on access to basic health care services in government health facility. METHODS: Descriptive cross-sectional study with quantitative and qualitative methods was designed and applied to identify the access to health care services. The study population were people who were sick within three months prior to the study where basic sampling unit was household. Total sample size was 96 through the application of simple random sampling method. Bivariate analysis with 95% confidence interval was used to identify the association of variables with access to health care services. RESULTS: Among the total population, 28% of households in the study area received health care services at government health facility. The reasons for not accessing health care were insufficient drugs (61%), distance (22%), staff unavailability (19%), sickness (9%), money (7%), and facility hours (4%). Sex, ethnicity and distance were found significantly associated with access to health care services. CONCLUSIONS: Less than one third of households had access to health care services in government health facility. Addressing the important factors such as drug problems, staff unavailability, long distance to health institutions and inconvenient health facility hours may help to increase access to health care services at government health facility.

Factors affecting retention of child health card in a rural area.

BACKGROUND: The child health card is a tool used by Health Management Information System in Nepal. It contains records on immunization, vitamin A and a weight-for-age growth chart. The objective of this study was to identify the magnitude of and the factors affecting retention of child health card. METHODS: A cross sectional descriptive design using quantitative methodology was applied. Divyapuri VDC was selected purposively and simple random sampling was applied to obtain a sample of 282 households with children between one to 36 months. Information was collected by interview with mothers of one to 36 months children and by observation of child health cards. Descriptive analysis was performed to assess the magnitude of retention of child health card. Then, bivariate analysis was performed; odds ratio and corresponding 95% confidence interval were used to test the significance of association. Logistic regression model was used for control of confounding. RESULTS: Only 41% of the mothers produced child health card at the time of survey. For about 7% respondents, child health card was not issued and only 45% of the respondents who were issued child health card have retained it. Younger age group of the child, mothers living nearer to health facility, mothers with knowledge on use of child health card for recording immunization and recording growth monitoring; and mothers who were explained child health card by health worker were found significantly higher odds of retaining it. CONCLUSIONS: The retention of child health card was low in the study area. Health workers should be trained to educate mothers on retention and use of child health cards.