Dietary Diversity and Stunting among Infants and Young Children: A Cross-sectional Study in Aligarh

CONTEXT: Child undernutrition is a public health problem in a developing country like India. Dietary diversity is an important immediate determinant of undernutrition. AIMS: The aim of this study is to find the prevalence of stunting among infants and young children aged 6–23 months and its association with dietary diversity. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This study was community-based cross-sectional study. It was carried out in the registered families of the Urban Health Training Centre and Rural Health Training Centre, Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh. METHODS: A total of 326 children aged 6–23 months were included in the study. Study tools were predesigned and pretested questionnaire, modified infant and young child feeding practices questionnaire, and infantometer. Systematic random sampling with probability proportionate to size technique was utilized to drawn necessary sample size. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Wald's statistics, Z-scores, and bivariate and multivariate logistic regression (LR) (stepwise backward LR) were used. RESULTS: The prevalence of stunting in study population was 45.7% (95% CI - 40.1%, 51.1%); moderate stunting was 33.7% (95% CI - 28.8%, 39%); and severe stunting was 12% (95% CI - 8.8%, 16%). The prevalence of stunting was significantly associated with dietary diversity (OR - 0.17, 95% CI - 0.10–0.29) CONCLUSIONS: The study concludes that dietary diversity is a significant predictor of stunting. Therefore, interventions aimed at improving dietary diversity should be taken to reduce the burden of stunting among infants and young children.