నైరూప్య

The nutritional status and cognitive & motor development of children in Nepal

Jeeban Ghimire*

Background: Children are viewed as the best national asset. Nutrition influences physical growth, morbidity, mortality, cognitive development, reproduction and physical work ability, and it thus impacts human execution, health and survival. There is a direct effect of nutrition on the communication skill development, gross motor development, fine motor development, problem-solving skill and personal social development of children. Aim: To assess the nutritional status of 6-24 months children and investigate the association with the cognitive development of children.

Methods: The cross-sectional research design, the basically analytical design was adopted to depict the association across child feeding practices, nutritional status and cognitive and motor development of children. This study adopted mixed methods – quantitative and qualitative data in accordance with pragmatic philosophy and Health Belief Model. This study explored the Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices using WHO guidelines, child nutrition status (WHO Anthro) and cognitive and motor development by using Age and Stages Questionaire (ASQ). It covered the 347 sample households having 6-24 months of children.

Results: Acute malnutrition was found in 6.4% (4.3 - 9.5 95% C.I.) among the 6-24 months children whereas the problem of stunting was very high at 64.8 % (59.6 - 69.8 95% C.I.) and underweight was among the 26.8% children (22.1 - 31.4 95% C.I.). There was a significant correlation of nutritional status with 16 and above month children in gross motor development, fine motor development and problem-solving skill development (p<0.05, i.e. p=0.011, p=0.047 & p=0.047). Mother’s education was found one important factor which had a significant effect on the practices of dietary diversity.