IBN AL- HAITHAM J. FO R PURE & APPL. SC I VO L.22 (3) 2009 Nutritional status of Under Five Years children of Falluga refugees K.M. Mahdi Departme nt of Biology, College of Education – I bn Al- Haitham, Baghdad Unive rsity Abstract In 2005 Falluga city had an humanitarian crisis situation, characterized by armed conflict. Larg p op ulation disp laced. To assess the nutritional st atus of under five children, a check of 678 child in five p laces of Int ernal Disp laced Peop les . was achieved The results indicated that 19.6%, 48.5% of the children had diarrhea and acute resp iratory infection. Twenty p ercent of the children had achronic malnutrition while 4.1% & 0.5% had a general and acute malnutrition. Introduction M alnutrition was the direct or underly ing cause of deaths of 49% of children under 5 y ears in developing countries during 1995 (1) Growth faltering and malnutrition usually st art at around the age of 6 months, mainly because the comp lementary feeding either began later was not done prop erly (2). In recent y ears, humanitarian crisis situation have been characterized by p olitical instability , armed confilects, larg p op ulation disp lacements, food short ages, social disrup tion and collapes of the public health infrastructure (3) And have resulted in increases in mortality about t he usual levels due to a combination of disease malnutrition and aggression (4) In such situations t hey are often referred to as emergencies or crises (5). Falluga is a large district based on about 60 km on Nort h West of Baghdad, It was affected by armed confilict which led to the disp lacement of most of its p op ulation. Assessment of nutritional st atus of under five children of Falluga refugees, the source of water and food sup p lies and the p ercentage of malnutrition are the aim of this st udy . A representative random sample of U5 children in 5 locations (Al-Habbania, Al- Saqlawia, Al-Qarma, Aameriat al falluga and Baghdad camps). Methods A random sample of 687 U5 children was selected in 2005, Subjects were selected from different geographical areas of Internal Disp laced Peop les (IDPs) by using a p robability p rop ortional to size sampling methods. Ant hrop ometric measures of children were done to determine the p revalence of malnutrition, the weight of the children was measured by using uniscale and height by using a height wooding board, The p recision of the scales was checked with control weight. The p ercentage p revalence of under weight (weight- for–age), wast ing (weight–for–height) and st unting (height–for–age) were calculated The reference for anthrop ometric measures was the world Health Organization National Center for Health Statist ics (WHO/NCHS) st andards (7) and the cut–offs were -2 standard deviations from the mean. Re sults The resul ts show that : 1. S ex distributi on There was 371 male of the children and 316 female with 54% and 46% resp ectively. 2. Age distributi on IBN AL- HAITHAM J. FO R PURE & APPL. SC I VO L.22 (3) 2009 Table (1) show the age distribution of the children, those who are in the first and second y ear of life contributed to about 42.8. Those whose age 4-5 y ears contributed only 17.6. 3. Nutriti onal status by total sample General malnutrition (under weight – for – age) in the total sample occur in about (4.1%) of children under five y ears of age, chronic malnutrition (low height–for- age) occurs in (20%) and acute malnutrition (low weight-for- height) in about 0.5%, The nutritional p roblem remains serious for chronic malnutrition. Direct comp arisons of the survey with those based on house holds must be cautions. Even so t he present underweight estimation of 4.1% is about a quarter the of Iraq (15.7%), the less than quarter of Anbar governorate (18.7%) and about half of Turkey (9-10%) (8), While the p resent chronic malnutrition estimation of 20% is less than in whole Iraq & Anbar (25.9%, 24.1%) resp ectively (9). 4. Malnutrition by age The patt ern of malnutrition by age shows the critical age at risk of those who are under two y ears, Level of chronic malnutrition for children aged 1-2 y ears are greater (25%) than those aged less than one year And t hose who are more than two y ears, are also relatively at a high rate for y oung Infant and older children. The prevalence of a general malnutrition is low (7.3%) for children aged 1-2 y ears and below that for y oung infants and older children, While for acute malnutrition the high p revalence is found in children aged 4-5 y ears (1.6%). Table (2) shows that. 5. Malnutrition by sex There is some different in malnutrition rates for males & females. The p revalence is higher in male than female. Table (3) shows that. 6. Prevalence of malnutriti on by S ex and Age Table (4) shows the p revalence of malnutrition for the children who depends on their sex and age, which indicates that the chronic malnutrition was high in all age, sex group s while the acute malnutrition ranged between 0-1.6% and the general malnutrition rang 2- 7.3%. 7. S ocial & Heal th Indicators A-Famil y Work The results show t hat 61.3% of t he fathers of the children had free work, while 95.2% of the mothers were housekeeper (Table 5) indicate the distribution of the samp le according to the work of the fathers & the mothers of t he children. B-Morbidity Di arrhe a & Acute Respiratory Infe ction (ARI) The results show that 19.6% of the children had diarrhea at the last week of the research while a high p ercentage of the children had ARI 48.5. Table (6) shows the p revalence of morbidity . C- S ource of food About 55% of the families depended on the food ration which was distributed by the M inist ry of Trade, While 38.4 bought their food from the local market and only 6.3% depended on food aids. T able (7) shows that. D- S ource of waters The results indicate that 68.2% of the families got their water sup p ly from the tab water, 18.5% direct from the river, 6.6% from wells & 6.2% from tankers. T able (8) shows that. IBN AL- HAITHAM J. FO R PURE & APPL. SC I VO L.22 (3) 2009 Discussion According to the results of t he research the following findings were: 1. The p ercentage of chronic malnutrition was about 20%, this result is the same as in the other p arts of Iraq esp ecially in the South-Center districts. 2. The p revalence of general and acute malnutrition 4.1%, 0.5 resp ectively which were much less than the other parts of Iraq, or the national figures 15.9% & 6.7. 3. 19.6 & of children had diarrhea & 48.5 had ARI which were very high and indicate the bad living situation. 4. About 30% of children used unsafe water. So, inorder to solve the nutritional p roblems of the (IDPs) in Falluga and other Places: It should p rovide safe water to all IDPs, health facilities should be available to all children as p revention & treatment, follow up the nutritional status of all IDPs in different governorates, educate mothers & families to use safe food & water sup p ly. Re ferences 1. Nut rition for health and development: p rogress and p rosp ects on the eve of the 21s century .(1999) Geneva. World Health Organization, (WHO/ NHD/ 99.9) 2. Djazay ery,A.(2004) Eastern mediterranean health journal 10(6): 731- 736 3. Brenan, RJ. and Nandy , R. (2001), Emergency medicine, 13:147-56 4. Burkle, FM . Lesson.(1999) British medical journal, 319:422-6. 5. Hansch, S. and Burkholder, B. (1996), Harvard international review, 18 (10-11): 53-4. 6. Robert, D-Lee and David, C. Nieman (2003), "Nutritional Assessment" Third Edition, M c Graw Hill, pp 163-215 7. Phy sical st atus: the use and interp retation of anthrop ometry .(1995) Report of a WHO Exp ert committee. Geneva, World Health Organization, (WHO Technical Report Series, No. 854). 8. The state of the worlds children: Unicef.N.Y (1996). 9. M ultip le Indicator survey in sout h- center of Iraq.(1996) Central Statist ics Organization with Unicef . Table (1): sample age distributi on by year Age / y ear % 0-1 22.7 1-2 19.8 2-3 20.1 3-4 19.8 4-5 17.6 Table (2): Prevalence of malnutriti on by age Age / y ear General malnutrition -2SD W/A Chronic -2SD H/A Acute -2SD W/H 0-1 4.7 16.3 0.5 1-2 7.3 25 0.1 2-3 4.3 15.2 0.7 3-4 2.9 22.8 0.0 4-5 4.9 20.7 1.6 IBN AL- HAITHAM J. FO R PURE & APPL. SC I VO L.22 (3) 2009 Table (3): Prevalence of malnutriti on by sex Sex General -2SD W/A Chronic -2SD H/A Acute -2SD W/H M ale 4.3 22.7 0.8 Female 3.8 17.5 0.3 Table (4): Prevalence of malnutrition by sex and age Age/month Sex W/A -2SD H/A -2SD W/H -2SD 0-5.9 M ale 2 22.4 2 Female 2.4 14.7 - Total 2.2 18.9 1.1 6-11.9 M ale 7.1 16.7 - Female - 8.3 - Total 3.5 12.5 - 12-7.9 M ale 3 24.3 - Female 11.4 22.9 - Total 7.3 23.6 - 18-23.9 M ale 5.2 26.2 - Female - 26.6 - Total 3 26.4 - 24-35.9 M ale 8.7 18.8 1.4 Female - 11.5 - Total 4.3 15.2 0.7 36-47.9 M ale - 22.0 - Female 5.9 23.8 - Total 2.9 22.9 - 48-60 M ale 4.2 23.6 1.4 Female 6.1 16.3 2 Total 4.9 20.7 1.6 Table (5): Percentage of fathers and mothers work M other Father Work 3.8 16.6 Government emp loyee 0.1 4.4 Retired 0.6 61.3 Free work - 12.5 Workless - 1.5 Unable to work 95.2 - House keeper 0.3 3.8 Ot hers IBN AL- HAITHAM J. FO R PURE & APPL. SC I VO L.22 (3) 2009 Table (6): Prevalence of morbidity Illness Yes% No% Diarrhea 19.6 80.4 ARI 48.5 51.5 Table (7) : Food source Source of foods % Food ration 55.1 Food aids 6.3 Local aids 38.4 Ot hers 0.1 Table (8): Water source Source of water % Tab water 68.2 River 18.5 walls 6.6 Tankers 6.2 Ot hers 0.4 2009) 3( 22مجلة ابن الهیثم للعلوم الصرفة والتطبیقیة المجلد ــــــــــــال دون ة یــــــــــــــــالحالـــــــــــــــة التغذو الخامســــــــــــــــة مــــــــــــــــن العمــــــــــــــــرلألطفــــ لمهجري الفلوجة خلیل محسن مهدي إبن الهیثم ، جامعة بغداد-قسم علوم الحیاة ، كلیة التربیة الخالصة . تعرضــت مدینـة الفلوجــة الـى حملــة عسـكریة ادت الــى تهجیـر العوائــل منهـا الــى منـاطق متعــددة 2005فـي عـام فـي خمـس منــاطق تجمـع، واظهــرت طفــالً 687تقیـیم الحالــة التغذویـة لالطفـال دون الخامســة مـن العمــر تـم فحـص وبهـدف وكانــت . بااللتهابـات التنفســیة الحـادة اأصـیبو % 48.5و یعــانون مـن االســهال امــن االطفـال كـانو % 19.6النتـائج ان نسـبة طفـال الـذین یعـانون مـن سـوء أمـا األ% 20) الطـول الـى العمـر نقـص(نسـبة االطفـال الـذین یعـانون مـن سـوء التغذیـة المـزمن %.0.5) نقص الوزن الى الطول(وسوء التغذیة الحاد % 4.1فكان ) نقص الوزن الى العمر(التغذیة العام