Nutritional status and dietary behavior among up to ten years children in selected three jelepara of bangladesh

The study was conducted among the children aged up to ten years old in selected three Jelepara of Bangladesh. The major goals of the study were to identify the nutritional status and dietary behaviour of the children in Jelepara selected from three regions as Bhola, Tangail and Mymensingh district. Three Jelepara were selected purposively for availability of the samples and other relevant inclusions and exclusions factors. The data collection tools included a questionnaire, anthropometric measurements (weight and height) and a food frequency questionnaire. The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) BMI-for-age percentiles were used to identify children who were underweight (< 5th BMI-for age percentile), overweight (85th to 95th percentile BMI-for age) or obese (≥95th percentile BMI-for-age).Anthropometric measurements revealed the prevalence of both under nutrition and over nutrition among the children. From the assessment of socio-economic condition significant differences were found in household total monthly income. Household total monthly income was higher in Mymensingh Jelepara as compared to Bhola and Tangail Jelepara. From the assessment of dietary intake pattern it was found that the regular eating habit of fish and vegetables were better in Bhola Jelepara. The anthropometric assessment showed that among the selected areas nutritional status of children were better in Bhola Jelepara (73.3% healthy weight) as compared to Tangail (60% healthy weight) and Mymensingh (66.7% healthy weight) Jelepara. On the other hand, majority of the under nutrition were found in Tangail Jelepara (26.7% underweight) comparable to Bhola and Mymensingh Jelepara.The overall nutritional study focused that 24.4% of the children were underweight, 8.9%were overweight, and 66.7% were healthy weight among the three selected Jelepara. It was also observed that the mother’s nutritional status and nutritional knowledge was comparatively better in Mymensingh Jelepara. The above study concluded that it should be need for local education and health authorities to develop nutrition education programmers that are contextually sensitive to specifically target children and parents in deprived areas of Jelepara in Bangladesh