Demographic Profile Associated With Malnutrition

Worldwide, malnutrition is the severe most health problem leading to the highest rate of disease andmortality among children less than 5 years of age. Objective: To find out the association betweenmalnutrition and demographic profile. Methods: 350 malnourished children were chosen by nonprobabilityconvenient sampling technique from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore. Children wereassessed through pre-tested questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21.0. Results: 45%malnourished children were 1-3 years of age, majority of the children were females (52%), 89% childrenwere from rural areas, 82.6% children were from low socioeconomic status, 54.6% mothers wereuneducated, 50% malnourished children were not having their own house, 115 malnourished childrenwere having 3 or more siblings and 89 mothers were having less than one year of pregnancy gap.Conclusions: Low socioeconomic status, illiteracy of mothers, rural area, gap between pregnancy andfemale gender has been found to be linked with malnutrition in children below 5 years of age.