Investigating Family Factors that Affect Malnutrition of Children under 5 Years old in Koohrang City

Introduction: growth and development are among the most important and fundamental factors in pediatric medicine. The development process, in addition to being the most important child health index, is a valuable criterion to determine family and community health. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of economic, social, and educational factors on malnutrition of children in Koohrang city. Method: in this descriptive and correlational study, data were collected according to the Sib System and questionnaire and the weighting status and height growth were estimated according to the standard charts of WHO and data were analyzed by SPSS 16. Result: the results showed that 54.61% and 45.33% of the sample are females and males, respectively. Among males, 5.3% were below 73 percentile, 60.3% were between 07 and 3 percentile, 31% were between 50 and 97 percentile, and 2.9% were above 97 percentile. Among females, 6.73% were below 73 percentile, 59.3% were between 3 and 34 percentile, 30.50% were between 50 and97 percentile, and 3.2% were above 97 percentile. In this study, 35%, 45%, 15%, 3% and 2% of fathers has elementary, diploma, AD, BA, and above MA and these numbers for mothers were 43%, 25%, 21%, 10% and 1%, respectively. Also, the economic status and malnutrition showed a significant relationship and no significant relationship existed between mothers’ education and their occupation and growth status of children.