Application of multilevel model for assessing the affected factors on failure to thrive in children less than two years old

Failure to thrive (FTT) is delay or suspension during a child growth and not dealing with this disorder may lead to more serious consequences like increased mortality, emerging other relevant diseases, reduced learning capabilities, and mental, emotional, or physical disabilities. This study aimed to identify and investigate factors associated to occurrence of FTT.

The population of this longitudinal study included children below 2 years old visiting the Health Center of Tehran, from which 1200 infants using two-stage cluster sampling method were selected according to the input criteria. After gathering data on the first two years of these infants’ life, factors associated to FTT using SAS software and multilevel model were analyzed.

Factors associated to diarrhea, infection, teething, nourishment, weaning, and other diseases had significant role in causing FTT from which the cause of diarrhea was the most likely factor. In addition, the model’s random section became significant.

As is clear from the results, both organic and inorganic factors contribute to occurrence of this disorder. Given the significant random effects, the known causes and factors alone are not enough for prediction of FTT among infants. Genetic and environmental factors may play a role in FTT outbreak as well