Background: Differences between urban and rural settings can be seen as a very important example of gaps\r\nbetween groups in a population. The aim of this paper is to compare an urban and a rural area regarding child\r\ngrowth during the first two years of life as related to mother�s use of antenatal care (ANC), breastfeeding and\r\nreported symptoms of illness.\r\nMethods: The studies were conducted in two Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites, one rural and one urban\r\nin Hanoi, Vietnam.\r\nResults: We found that children in the urban area grow faster than those in the rural area. There were statistical\r\nassociations between growth and the education of the mother as well as household resources. There were positive\r\ncorrelations between the number of ANC visits and child growth. We also saw a positive association between\r\ngrowth and early initiation (first hour of life) of breastfeeding but the reported duration of exclusive breastfeeding\r\nwas not statistically significantly related to growth. Reporting symptoms of illness was negatively correlated to\r\ngrowth, i.e. morbidity is hampering growth.\r\nConclusions: All predictors of growth discussed in this article, ANC, breastfeeding and illness, are associated with\r\nsocial and economic conditions. To improve and maintain good conditions for child growth it is important to\r\nstrengthen education of mothers and household resources particularly in the rural areas. Globalization and\r\nurbanization means obvious risks for increasing gaps not least between urban and rural areas. Improvement of the\r\nquality of programs for antenatal care, breastfeeding and integrated management of childhood illness are also\r\nneeded in Vietnam.
Loading....