Nutritional status of Palestinian preschoolers in the Gaza Strip: a cross-sectional study

BMC Public Health

Table 3 Mean differences between resilient, moderate, and vulnerable groups in socioeconomic status and exposure to political violence, Gaza 2007

	Resilient (N = 130)	Moderate (N = 168)	Vulnerable (N = 52)	All (N = 350)
Maternal factors
Elementary Schooling only	8.5%	8.3%	17.3%	9.7%
Employed	4.6%	8.9%	5.8%	6.9%
Household factors
Living in a direct military confrontation area	26.1%	25.0%	23.1%	25.1%
On food assistance	50.0%	49.7%	52.0%	50.7%
Family did not have enough food for at least 2 days in the past month	40.0%	43.5%	40.4%	41.7%
Deprivation score¹ (mean [SD])	1.3 [1.2]	1.5 [1.4]	1.6 [1.4]	1.4[1.3]
Average household income in US² dollars⁴(mean [SD])	205 [134]	206 [190]	197 [200]	204 [174]
Family size (mean [SD])	7.9 [3.9]	8.0 [3.8]	9.1 [4.4]	8.1 [3.9]
Number of rooms (mean [SD])	3.1 [1.3]	3.0 [1.0]	3.1 [1.1]	3.1 [1.1]

Source of data: Interviews with mothers of 350 children aged 3-6 in 10 kindergartens across Gaza Strip, Palestine, January 2007.
Note: Based on Anova test and chi square test, none of the mean group differences were statistically significant at p ≤ 0.05
^1: A rating was constructed as the number of affirmative responses to the following dichotomous items: family did not have enough money for living expenses, did not have money to pay the bills, and the mother felt that her child was deprived.
^2: Only 31% and 29% of families of vulnerable and resilient children reported income, respectively.

ISSN: 1471-2458