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

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