CORRELATION OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN AGED 6- 60 MONTHS

Abstract

ABSTRACTObjectives: This study was conducted on 152 mother-child pairs; to look for the relationship of maternal nutritionalstatus and iron status with that of their children.Methods: Anthropometric data were obtained for mothers and their children and applied to appropriate charts toestimate weight for length Z score, weight for age Z score and height for age Z score for children, and body massindex was estimated for each mother. Hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, serum iron, total iron binding capacityand transferrin saturation percentage were measured for 75 mother-child pairs.Results: Concerning children; 30 (19.8%) have moderate and severe wasting, 44 (28.9%) have moderate and severeunderweight and 28 (18.4%) were with moderate and severe stunting. Nine mothers (6%) were with underweightand protein-calorie malnutrition (body mass index ≤ 19 kg/m 2), while 62 (40.7%) were obese. There was a significantnegative association between the age of the child and his/her hemoglobin level, mean corpuscular volume (P-value<0.05), serum iron and transferrin saturation percentage (P-value <0.01). The study has revealed also that there wasa significant positive association between the hematological parameters of children with the hematologicalparameters of their mothers, P value <0.01.Conclusion: The study didn’t reveal a significant association between the mothers' and the children's nutritionalstatus parameters. However, there was a highly significant association between the mothers' and the children'shematological parameters.