Malnutrition & Associated Risk Factors among Under Five Children

Background: Malnutrition continues to be a major public health problem in developing countries. In India, childmalnutrition rate is one of the most serious public health problem and highest in the world. The main aim of thisstudy is to find the differentials of under‐five malnutrition in rural Rajasthan, India. Another spotlight of this studyis to examine the impact of demographic, health and socio‐economic factors on malnutrition. Moreover onthrough review on literature it was found that the present study will be first of its kind in Rajasthan and thisarouses the need for the present study. Objective: To assess prevalence of malnutrition and to explore theassociated risk factors. Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted on 496 children aged6‐59 months at Jhalawar district. Multistage sampling method was used to select the study subjects. Forcategorical variables, logistic regression approach using a probit model in STATA V.12.0 was used and theoutcomes were compared using odd’s ratio (O.R) correlation coefficient among stunning, wasting andunderweight was carried out using statistical software R, V.3.1.0. Results: The study revealed that, 54%, 84% and63% of children were stunted, underweight and wasted. The prominent factors having significant effect onstunting, wasting and underweight were birth weight, exclusive breast feeding (EBF) & family income. Significantcorrelation effect was observed between wasting, underweight and stunting. Conclusion: Malnutrition is still animportant problem among children aged 6‐59 months. Therefore, especial attention should be given onintervention of malnutrition