Abstract:
This retrospective case-control study aimed to study factors associated with malnutrition among the hill tribe people of Northern Thailand. The target population was parents of ethnic children aged 0-5 years. They were divided into 2 groups: The Sample group was 64 parents of children who were assessed for nutrition and weight according to age criteria, were underweight, and relatively underweight. The control group was 153 parents of children who were assessed for nutrition and weight according to age criteria, were underweight.
The instruments used in this study were questionnaires that collected data on mothers, family background information, parents knowledge of food and nutrition, parents beliefs about food and nutrition, and childrens nutrition. Data were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics and to find predictive relationships of factors associated with childrens malnutrition. Using multiple regression analysis statistics, the research results found that the sample group of mothers were aged 21-30 years, 48.4 percent had primary education, 32.8 percent had a history of 5 prenatal visits, 95.3 percent received iodine, iron, and folic acid supplements and took them daily, 65.6 percent had no underlying diseases, 96.9 percent had breastfeeding for 6 months or more, 79.3 percent were Lahu ethnic groups, the majority of whom were 67.2 percent. The children were male, 64.1 percent were 36 months old or more, 48.4 percent had a birth weight of 2.5 kilograms or more, 90.6 percent had no history of diarrhea, 60.9 percent had an average weight of 9.6 kilograms, and an average height of 82.6 centimeters. When measuring the nutritional status by comparing weight to height criteria, 46.9 percent were in proportion. The growth status by measuring height according to age criteria was high according to the criteria. As for the basic factors of the sample group's families Mothers were the caretakers of the family's food (85.9%). The parents of the sample group had a very good level of knowledge about food and nutrition, 87.5% had high beliefs about food and nutrition, and 81.2% had factors significantly related to malnutrition at a statistical significance level of 0.05 including the Lahu ethnic group, number of household members, male children, children aged 36 months and over and history of diarrhea.