Association of socioeconomic status and food security with anthropometric indices among 2-5 year-old urban and rural children in Hamedan city

Food insecurity is one of the issues that have a serious impact on the nutritional status of all individuals in society, especially children and given that food insecurity can be a precursor of health, developmental and nutritional problems, determining the factors associated with it, is also essential in any community it seems. According to this, this study aimed to determine the relationship between food security, socioeconomic status and anthropometric indices in children 2-5 years in Hamedan city. In this analytical descriptive cross-sectional study, 683 children 2-5 years (360 boys, 323 girls) from Hamedan city and villages were selected by systematic cluster sampling methods from the Hamedan University of Medical sciences. HFLAS 9-item questionnaire to investigate food security, and also, a general questionnaire was completed through interviews with mothers of children. Also, children of anthropometric Z scores were measured by using the world health organization (WHO) Anthro software basal on WHO 2007 standards. Eventually, data were analyzed by SPSS software.  According to this study, there was a significant correlation between the mother's and father's education and occupation, frequency of snack and food security with children's weight for age (p<0.05). Also, there was a significant correlation between the mother's and father's job, frequency of snack with children's weight for height (p<0.05). While BMI for age had a significant correlation with maternal education, (p<0.05). Also, height for age correlated with the mother’s education and occupation, father’s education, number of snacks and food security (p<0.05). Also, no significant difference was found between other components (p>0.05).  The result of this study shown that there was a significant correlation between food security, Z score height for age, Z scores BMI for age, mother's and father's education, mother's job and socioeconomic status of the household.