Prevalence of Malnutrition in Children Under 5 Years of Age in Batkhela Tehsil, KPK, Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: To find out the prevalence of malnutrition in children under five years of age in a local population. Study Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Paediatrics, Tehsil Headquarter Hospital Dargai, Malakand District from 1 July 2022 to 31 Dec 2022. Materials and Methods: A total of 156 children were included in the study. Demographic details like age, gender and weight were recorded. All children underwent malnutrition assessment as per operational definition using WHO Software. Data analysis was done using SPPS Version 24. Results: A total of 156 children were included in this research survey. Mean age and weight were 4.1±0.69 years & 12.8±0.94 kg respectively. A total of 51.28% children were between 3months to 3 years of age and 48.71% belonged to 4-5 years age group. Amongst them, 71.15% were males and 28.84% were females. Approximately 72.3% of the children were from families with a lower socio-economic status, while 19.23% and 8.33% were associated to the middle class and well of categories, respectively. Literacy rate of fathers was 44.87%. Regarding mothers, 85.25% were housewives, and 14.75% were employed. As per frequencies and percentages for malnutrition, 57 (36.35%) patients were recorded with malnutrition. Conclusion: Prevalence of child malnutrition is notably elevated among children below the age of five. This phenomenon is more commonly observed among children whose mothers are housewives, predominantly due to factors associated with limited educational attainment and constrained socioeconomic status.

Keywords

• children
• malnutrition
• stunting
• underweight
• wasting.