The aim of the study was to identify the factors associated with undernutrition indicators in children 5 years and younger in a rural community in Malaysia. A total of 295 children and their carers were selected from community clinics based on a multistage sampling method. Pretested questionnaire, anthropometric measurement, and dietary assessment were used for data collection. There was 69% stunting, 63.4% underweight, 40% wasting, and 26.8% with mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) for age below a z score of -2 among children. In all, 10 factors were found to be associated with different indicators of undernutrition. Age was the only factor that had association with all the undernutrition indicators. Total household income and total expenditure showed significant association with underweight. Birth weight was reported to have significant association with underweight, stunting, and low MUAC-for-age. The findings suggest that the factors of undernutrition were different for different indicators of undernutrition and thus give a more comprehensive picture on factors contributing to acute and chronic malnutrition.
Abortion has been largely avoided in Muslim communities. However, Islamic jurists have established rigorous parameters enabling abortion of fetuses with severe congenital abnormalities. This decision-making process has been hindered by an inability to predict the severity of such prenatally-diagnosed conditions, especially in genetic disorders with clinical heterogeneity, such as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Heterogeneous phenotypes of SMA range from extremely severe type 1 to very mild type 4. Advances in molecular genetics have made it possible to perform prenatal diagnosis and to predict the types of SMA with its potential subsequent severity. Such techniques will make it possible for clinicians working in predominantly Muslim countries to counsel their patients accurately and in harmony with their religious beliefs. In this paper, we discuss and postulate that with our current knowledge of determining SMA types and severity with great accuracy, abortion is legally applicable for type 1 SMA.