Socio-Demographic Factors Associated with Malnutrition Among Children Less Than Five Years

Abstract

Objective: To determine the socio-demographic factors responsible for malnutrition among children less than five years of age. Study Design: Cross-Sectional Study. Settings: Department of Pediatrics of Bilawal Medical college Hospital Kotri-Pakistan. Duration: One-year duration from Dec 2017 to Nov 2018. Methodology: All the children having age 6 months to 59 months, presented with malnutrition were included. All the children underwent measurement of height, weight, mid upper arm, and circumference of head of children. Parents of all the selected children were interviewed regarding their educational status, socioeconomic status, maternal antenatal history, birth history (pre-term or term), vaccination status, diet status and history of breast feeding in terms of exclusive and un-exclusive. All the children were categorized according to Gomez’s classification of malnutrition. Results: Total 106 children were studied; their mean age was 35.07+12.14 months. Severe malnutrition was most common among 70.8% of the cases. Severe malnutrition was significantly linked to the poor socioeconomic status, p-value 0.001. Inadequate diet was also found as responsible factor for severe malnutrition, because most of the severely malnourished children had history of inadequate diet, p-value 0.041. Inadequate feeding was significantly correlated with severe malnutrition, p-value 0.010. Conclusion: It was concluded that poor socioeconomic Status, poor antenatal care, poor diet and inadequate breast feeding are responsible factors for severe malnutrition.