Nutritional status of under five year children from Shinkiari and Bedadi areas of District Mansehra, Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: To measure the prevalence of malnutrition with the gender
difference and age trend among the children. Information about
nutritional status is an indicator of the nutritional situation in our society.
Methodology: A cross sectional survey was conducted by structured
questionnaire, a nutritional status of each child from household was
assessed through anthropometric measurements. Two important indicators of nutritional status i.e. disease and malnutrition were studied by measuring the height for age, weight for age and weight for height.
Results: Children from Shinkiari were more affected and malnourished
than those of Bedadi area. Among the Shinkiari children, 59% were found
stunted, 40.5% were under weight and 42.9% were wasted. Among the
children of Bedadi village, 55.8% were stunted, 46.5% were under weight
and 44.2% were wasted. In comparison, nutritional status of girls were
found to be more affected than boys, which indicated that the parents paid more attention to boys in comparison to girls. Conclusion: Malnutrition rate is very high in District Mansehra, Pakistan due to lack of maternal education and poor quality of food. Malnutrition can be reduced by increasing female education and quality of food for growing population.