Applying Who Anthro Software for Assessing Nutritional Status of Infants in Some Precints in Hue City

Abstract

Background: Assessing nutritional status is a common activity of pediatricians and nutritionists. In Vietnam, the National Center for Health Statistics reference had been used from beginning of 1980s. In 2006 World Health Organization recommended to use WHO standards for assessing nutritional status of children. Objectives: 1. Using WHO Anthro software for assessing nutritional status of infants in some precints in Hue City. 2. Finding out the relationship between weight for age, length for age and weight for length. Materials and method: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2009 to April 2010. 387 infants who were living in Hue City were involved in the study. The weight, length, age of the infants was measured and others information were collected by interviewing their mothers. WHO anthro software was used to calculate weight for age, length for age and weight for length for assessing their nutritional status. Results: 1. WHO Anthro software helped to assess nutritional status of infants rapidly and conveniently with high accuracy prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting were 2.84%, 5.68% and 3.61% respectively. 2. There were correlations between weight for age and length for age (r =-0.659, p<0.001); between weight for age and weight for length (r=0.612, p<0.001); between length for age and weight for length (r=0.142, p<0.05). Conclusions: 1. WHO Anthro software is very useful for assessing nutritional status of children. It is very simple, convenience and exact to use this software. It also helps to prevent a common error caused by collectors when counting age of the children. 2. WHO Anthro software displays exact Z-score value in number and in graph. Suggestion: WHO Anthro software is a useful tool for assessing nutritional status of children that should be used widely, especially for demographic and family planning health workers. Key words: WHO Anthro, nutritional status, infants, Hue City.