Feeding Practices and Nutritional Status among Children Under Five Years of Age in Sleman District, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

Background and Objective: Previous studies have shown that the main factor affecting nutritional status among children aged 0-59 months is feeding practice. Better feeding practices have been shown to be essential for improving dietary intake and subsequently improving nutritional status. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between feeding practices and nutritional status among children under five years of age in Sleman District, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Materials and Methods: Using the cross-sectional design, 185 children aged 7-59 months were included as subjects. The sampling frame was taken from the Health Demography Surveillance System (HDSS) of the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. Anthropometric data (body weight and height) were measured to assess nutritional status and feeding practice was determined using a validated questionnaire. Results: The results reflected a high rate of severe and chronic malnutrition among subjects, in which the prevalence of underweight based on weight-for-age (WAZ) was 12.5%, stunting based on height-for-age (HAZ) was 39.5% and wasting based on weight-for-height (WHZ) was 5.4%. Most subjects had relatively good feeding practices in terms of breastfeeding practices (95.7%), complementary food feeding (70.8%), feeding behavior (64.3%) and feeding frequency of at least 3 times a day (78.9%). Complementary foods were introduced before 6 months of age in half (54.1%) of the subjects, indicating early interruption of exclusive breastfeeding. There was no association between feeding practices and nutritional status based on WAZ, HAZ and WHZ. Conclusion: In this study, feeding practice was not related to nutritional status among children aged 7-59 months. There remains a need to implement good feeding practices to achieve adequate food intake and improve the nutritional status of children.