Prevalence of Failure to Thrive and Associated Risk Factors in In-patients Under 5 Years of Age

Failure to thrive (FTT) is defined as delaying or stopping a child’s growth and mightlead to more serious complications, such as reduced learning ability, mental or physical disability, and mortality.

The present study aimed to assess the prevalence of growth retardation in children under 5 years of age and its risk factors.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on all 2038 children admitted to Ali Ebne Abitalib and Ali Asghar hospitals in Zahedan, Iran, in 2016. The samples entered the study basedoncensus sampling, andthe children’s height, weight, andothergrowth indices were measured. The children with confirmed growth retardation were recognized as the case group. Other children were regarded as controls. The parents’ characteristics were recorded in a list provided for this purpose. Data analysis was performed with SPSS software (version 20) using logistic regression with an error level of 0.05.

Of all children, 52.6% were male. The mean age of the total patients was 17.6 ± 4.14 months. The prevalence of children with growth failure was 747 patients (36.6%). In this study, the prevalence of short stature was significantly associated with factors such as parental height, low household level of education, high patients’ birth order, dry feeding, low birth weight, place of residence, and presence of background disease (P < 0.05). Nevertheless, the prevalence of short stature was not significantly associated with gender, age, polygamy status, age of complementary feeding, and gestational age (P > 0.05).

The present study concluded that the prevalence of FTT was high due to socioeconomic factors in the studied society. Parental short stature, education, nutrition, low birth weight, and residence in rural areas were the most significant factors.