Malnutrition among Under Five Children in the Peri-urban Area of Meerut City: Impact of Socio-demographic Factors

Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences,2013,3,3,769-773.
Published:August 2013
Type:Research Articles
Authors:
Author(s) affiliations:

Bhawana Pant1,*, Anuj Vaish2, Seema Jain3, Sartaj Ahmad4, Amit Mohan Varshney5, Rupesh6 

1Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Subharti Medical College, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. 

2Resident, Department of Community Medicine, Subharti Medical College, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. 

3Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, LLRM Medical College, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India.  

4Assistant Professor, Medical Sociology, Swami Vivekananda Subharti University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India.  

5Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Subharti Medical College, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. 

6Lecturer in Statistics, Department of Community Medicine, Subharti Medical College, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. 

Abstract:

An attempt was made to analyze social factors associated with malnutrition in children and to assess the prevalence of protein energy malnutrition in children 1 – 5 years of age. A Cross- sectional was carried out in service area of urban health training center of Department of Community Medicine, Subharti Medical College, Meerut periurban area of Meerut and 392 children of age group between 0-5 years from randomly selected families have been included and the study period was March 2011- June 2011. Data was entered in Microsoft excel and chi-square test was applied using SPSS-16 version. The prevalence of malnutrition among under five children 210 (53.57%) was found. Faulty feeding practices have a major role in initiation of malnutrition among under five children

Distribution of Children according to Literacy status of Mother