Peer-reviewed article
The effect of socioeconomic factors on malnutrition in Syrian children aged 0-6 years living in Turkey: a cross-sectional study.
Vasfiye Bayram Değer, Sema Çifçi, Melikşah Ertem ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined malnutrition prevalence in Syrian children aged 0-6 years living in Turkey, measuring height, weight and BMI in Mardin. About 30% of the youngest children and significant proportions showed stunting or underweight status. Socioeconomic factors including mother's education, family income and access to adequate food were strongly linked to malnutrition risk, with girls more likely to be affected than boys.
Key points
- 30.5% of Syrian children aged 0-6 months in the sample were male, comprising 55.8% of the total study population
- 74.3% of children had normal height-for-age and 79.3% had normal BMI-for-age
- Girls were more likely to experience stunting and underweight than boys
- Lack of adequate family food supply increased stunting risk by 0.809 times and underweight risk by 1.039 times
- Mother's educational level and family income were significantly linked to stunting and underweight prevalence
Limitations
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot establish causation or temporal relationships between socioeconomic factors and malnutrition. The findings are limited to one city in Turkey and may not be generalizable to Syrian children in other locations or countries.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to examine the prevalence of malnutrition in Syrian immigrant children living in Turkey. METHODS: The study was carried out in the city of Mardin, which is one of the cities with a high Syrian immigrant population in Turkey. Height, body weight and BMI values were recorded to determine the malnutrition status of the children. Z-scores of children were calculated using the malnutrition assessment WHOAntro program. RESULTS: The data show that 30.5% of Syrian children between the ages of 0 and 6 months are male, making up 55.8% of the total, and that 55.3% do not follow a regular breakfast schedule. The percentages of body weight for height, height for age, and BMI for age of Syrian children with a score between - 2 and + 2 SD Number were (89.3%), (74.3%), and (79.3%), respectively. Girls are more likely than boys to experience stunting and low body weight in the context of Syrian children (Stunting OR: 0.855(0.761-1.403), Underweight OR: 0.705(0.609-1,208)). Additionally, there is a link between levels of stunting and underweight and elements like the mother's educational level and the family's income. Contrary to the situation of adequate nutrition, it was discovered that the likelihood of stunting and low body weight in children increased by 0.809 and 1.039 times, respectively, when access to an adequate food supply was not available within the family (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: s According to the results of the study, gender, family income, mother's education level and access to food affected the severity of malnutrition in children. Migration is an imporatnt factor affecting children's health. In this study malnutrition was found high im immigrant children. Programs should be developed to monitor the growth and development of disadvantaged children and to support their nutrition.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- None - this is an observational study examining the association between socioeconomic factors and malnutrition status
- Population
- Syrian immigrant children aged 0-6 years living in Mardin, Turkey
Key finding
74.3% of children had normal height-for-age (score between -2 and +2 SD)