Authors: GHOSH, SHIBANI¹; AW-HASSAN, ADEN²; PELLETT, PETER¹

Source: Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Volume 43, Numbers 1-2, 2004 , pp. 107-148(42)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract:

Undernutrition, a multifactorial phenomenon, has severe consequences. A study was conducted in Syria to compare nutritional differences in children from three rural livelihood groups: a“barley-livestock”group in the southeast(Khanasser), and an“olive/fruit tree”group and an“irrigation”group in the northwest of Aleppo province (Afrin). An anthropometric assessment was conducted on 541 rural children from 207 rural households and 199 urban children (2-10 years) from a middle income urban group. Comparisons were made with the 1978 NCHS/WHO (National Center for Health Statistics/World Health Organization) international growth reference (WHO, 1995) and a-2 SD Z-score was used as a cut-off. Prevalence rates and mean Z-scores were calculated and independent sample t-tests used to compare totals and age-group disaggregated children (both boys and girls). Total stunting prevalence was highest in the barley-livestock group (23%) and lowest in the irrigation group (12.5%). Girls in the barley-livestock group displayed the highest rates of stunting (28.3%), followed by the boys (22%) and the girls (21.08%) in the olive/fruit tree group. The prevalence of underweight children was highest in the barley-livestock and olive/fruit tree livelihood groups (14.29%and 13.25%, respectively). Wasting rates were very low. The rates of stunting and underweight were higher in the barley-livestock and olive/fruit tree groups, as compared with the country-level estimates of 20.8 percent and 12.9 percent respectively, in children under five. A comparison of rates and mean scores indicates that, amongst rural groups, there was considerable variation: the barley-livestock and olive/fruit tree group, belonging to drier and poorer areas, exhibited higher rates and lower mean scores.

Keywords: Undernutrition; Syria; livelihood groups; stunting; underweight; wasting

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03670240490280267

Affiliations: 1: Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA 2: Natural Resource Management Program, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Aleppo, Syria

Publication date: 2004-01-01

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