NUTRITION AND INFANT-FEEDING SURVEY OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN SARAJEVODURING JULY 1993

Objective: To collect baseline information on nutritional status and i nfant feeding practices in besieged Sarajevo and to identify areas for action. Design: Thirty communities (clusters) were randomly selected from 84 local communities within besieged Sarajevo. A starting point w ithin a community was randomly selected and subsequent houses visited until the required sample size was reached. 19 collective centres were included in a separate sample. Setting: The survey was carried out in besieged Sarajevo during July 1993. Subjects: Subjects included resid ents and refugees. The nutritional status of 524 children aged from si x to 59 months and 494 women of child-bearing age was assessed. Inform ation on feeding practices was obtained from a subsample of 64 mothers with babies less than 16 weeks old. Measurements: Children and the wo men who accompanied them were weighed and measured. Weight for height Z scores were calculated for children and body mass index (BMI) was ca lculated for women. A structured questionnaire on infant feeding pract ices was administered to mothers of babies. Results: There were no ind ications of undernutrition in children above the 2.5% which would norm ally be expected in a population. Among resident women, 10.8% had a BM I<18.5, compared to 4.4% among refugee women in private accommodation and 8.6% in collective centres. The weights of refugee women in collec tive centres were significantly higher than the weights of resident wo men (ANOVA, p = 0.03). Only 6% of mothers with babies less than 16 wee ks old were exclusively breast feeding. Conclusion: Nutritional monito ring proved to be possible and useful in assessing breast feeding prac tices and nutritional status. The level of exclusive breast feeding wa s extremely low, probably due to lack of relevant education of health workers.