Abstract

If food conditions are not safe and anxiety and food worries develop at the household level and develop among children, then food insecurity will make sense. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between household food security and the growth rate of children aged 2 to 5 years in the earthquake-stricken areas of Kermanshah. The present study is a survey-descriptive and retrospective method.Inclusion criteria were age range 2 to 5 years, children's household consent to participate in the study, permanent residence, previous child care at least 4 months before the earthquake near Sarpol-e-Zahab and Babajani Trinity Health Centers and physical health. The population is 263 children, 71 boys and 85 girls. To collect data from the anthropometric questionnaire of children before and after the earthquake, the 18-item Food Safety Questionnaire (USDA) was completed. To analyze the data, independent t-test, analysis of variance, chi-square test, ANOVA and regression test were used using Spss18 software.

The results showed that due to the significant level (P <0.05) in each of the three percentiles, there is a statistically significant relationship between the growth status of children after the earthquake and the food security of children. The present study shows that the safer the food security situation of the family, the children will have a complete and healthy nutrition and as a result they will have a sufficient growth rate and will be more healthy.