Pravana NK, et al. – This case–control study was performed to evaluate the determinants of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) among children aged 6–59 months. Among these children, the important determinants of SAM were mother's age at birth, birth interval, socioeconomic status, father’s educational level and initiation of complementary feeding at the age of 6 months.

Methods

• This study was performed in 12 randomly selected Village Development Committees (VDCs) of the Bara district of Nepal.
• This study consisted of a random sample of 292 children aged 6–59 months (146 as cases and 146 as controls) from 12 VDCs.

Results

• The prevalence of SAM among children under the age of 5 years was 4.14%.
• The following factors were significantly associated with SAM: low socioeconomic status (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 17.13, 95% CI 5.85 to 50.13); mother’s age at birth <20 or >35 years (AOR 3.21, 95% CI 1.30 to 7.94); birth interval <24 months (AOR 4.09, 95% CI 1.87 to 8.97); illiterate father (AOR 3.65, 95% CI 1.62 to 8.20); bottle feeding (AOR 2.19, 95% CI 1.73 to 12.03); and not initiating complementary feeding at the age of 6 months (AOR 2.91, 95% CI 1.73 to 12.03).
• However, mother’s educational level, initiation of breastfeeding, colostrum feeding, and exclusive breastfeeding were not significantly associated with SAM.