The Association between Exclusive Breastfeeding, Maternal Nutritional Status, Maternal Zinc Intake, and Stunting in Infants Aged 6 Months

[摘要] Background: Stunting is a form of malnutrition that has an impact on decreased learning achie­ve­ment, motor and mental development and intellectual. Exclusive breastfeeding is a perfect nu­tri­tion for the First 1,000 Days of Life for normal growth. Maternal nutritional status also plays an im­por­tant role for the success of breastfeeding whose indicators are measured by the duration of ex­­clu­sive breastfeeding and the nutritional status of children. Adequacy of zinc is an important mi­cro­nutrient during the child's growth period to prevent growth failure. This study aimed to analyze the association between exclusive breastfeeding, maternal nutritional status, maternal zinc in­ta­ke, and stunting in infants aged 6 months. Subjects and Method: This was cross sectional study conducted in the 3 areas of Community He­alth Center, Jember Regency. The subjects of the study were infants aged 6 month and 115 mo­thers. Infants were selected by cluster sampling and simple random sampling for each area. The zinc intake data was obtained by the 24 hours Recall. Body Mass Index was used to obtain maternal nu­­­tritional status data. The stunting data measured by microtoise. The other data were collected by ques­tionnaire. The data were analyzed by path analysis. Results: Exclusive breastfeeding (b = - 0.61; 95% CI = -1.42 to 0.21; p = 0.143) and maternal zinc in­take (b = -0.04; 95% CI = 1.35 to 0.58; p = 0.436) directly decreased the risk of stunting in in­fants. Maternal BMI indirectly affected the risk of stunting in infants through exclusive breast­feeding Conclusion: Exclusive breastfeeding and maternal zinc intake directly decrease the risk of stun­ting in infants. Maternal BMI (Body Mass Index) indirectly affect to the risk of stunting in infants thro­ugh exclusive breastfeeding.

[学科分类] 食品科学和技术

[关键词] Exclusive breastfeeding;nutritional status;zinc intake;stunting