A research group from the American University of Armenia (AUA) School of Public Health (SPH), consisting of Drs. Anahit Demirchyan (AUA MPH 1999), Varduhi Petrosyan (SPH Dean), Viktoria Sargsyan (AUA MPH 2003), and Kim Hekimian (Assistant Professor), recently published two articles focusing on the health of children under five years old looking into the prevalence and risk factors for stunting and anemia. The first article, “Predictors of Stunting among Children Aged 0-59 Months in a Rural Region of Armenia: A Case-Control Study,” was published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition in July 2015 and the second article, “Prevalence and Determinants of Anemia among Children Aged 0-59 Months in a Rural Region of Armenia: A Case-Control Study,” was published in Public Health Nutrition in September 2015.
Both papers were written based on the project “Prevalence and Predictors of Undernutrition and Anemia among Under-Five Children in Talin Region of Aragatsotn Marz, Armenia” that the AUA School of Public Health implemented with financial support from the World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe Regional Office to estimate the impact of World Vision (WV) Area Development Program (ADP) interventions on children’s nutritional status in this region and to contribute to the improvement of WV ADP interventions. The study findings suggest that WV nutrition interventions have made an impact.
The paper on stunting suggested that non-nutritional factors could also lead to child stunting in rural Armenia and public health interventions should include sanitation and hygienic measures along with adequate perinatal care and maternal and child nutrition to further reduce childhood stunting. The anemia paper suggested interventions including prevention and treatment of anemia during pregnancy, provision of adequate complementary feeding to children with inclusion of meat in their daily diet and reduction of their exposure to biomass fuel smoke in rural Armenia. Interventions addressing under-nutrition and anemia among children under five years old could ensure long-term health benefits.
References to the listed articles are:
Demirchyan A, Petrosyan V, Sargsyan V, Hekimian K. Prevalence and determinants of anaemia among children aged 0-59 months in a rural region of Armenia: a case-control study. Public Health Nutrition 2015 Sept 2. [Epub ahead of print] DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1368980015002451
Demirchyan A, Petrosyan V, Sargsyan V, Hekimian K. Predictors of Stunting among Children Aged 0-59 Months in a Rural Region of Armenia: A Case-Control Study. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. 2015 Jul 4. [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1097/MPG.0000000000000901
The AUA School of Public Health works actively to improve the health of the populace and health services in Armenia and the region through interdisciplinary education and development of public health professionals and others to be leaders in public health, health services research and evaluation, and health care delivery and management.