Socio-cultural malnutrition in the estate sector of Sri Lanka. 3.. influence of parental demographic and economic factors on the nutritional status of pre-school children

Abstract

The relationships between the nutritional status of 420 pre-school children living on 4 tea estates in the districts of KAndy and Nuwara Eliya and parental, demographic and economic factors have been studied. Nutritional status of pre-school children was found to depend on the body weight and skin fold thickness and on the levels of basic nutritional knowledge of the mother, on the per capita income of household and whether the family reared livestock or not . The prevalence of under nutrition increased with family size and birthrank of the child and with decrease in family income. The urgent need for improving sanitation and providing primary health care to the estate population is stressed.