Determinants of Nutritional Status of Under - Five Children - A Cross Sectional Study

Introduction: Children between one and five years of age constitute 16.5% of the total population whereas mortality in this age group constitutes 40% of the total deaths in the country. Environmental factors like parental education, socio-economic status, sanitation, standard of living, parental attitudes and child rearing practices influence the growth and development of children. Objective: To find the determinants of malnu-trition in children aged 1-5 years. Methods: This study was conducted in a Primary Health Centre area. The study population consisted of children 1-5yrs of age. Sample size calculated was 933. Anthropometric meas-urements, i.e., height, weight of each subject, were taken according to the standard procedures. Children were considered with underweight, stunting and wasting if their weight-for age, height-for-age and weight-for-height z-scores were below -2.0 SD of the WHO standards. EPI INFO statistical package was used for analysis. Results: The present study included 933 (453 males and 480 females) under five children. The prev-alence of wasting, stunting and underweight (< -2 SD) by WHO standards was 23.7%, 38.2% and 37% respec-tively. Type of family, overcrowding, birth weight, duration of exclusive breast feeding and administration of pre-lacteal feeds were found to have an effect on the nutritional status. Literacy of mother also contributed to malnutrition in children. Conclusion: Besides poverty, there are other factors that directly or indirectly affect the nutritional status of children. The prevalence can be reduced using multiple interventional strate-gies.