Assessment of Malnutrition in Children

The Background of this study is Malnutrition is a main reason for the changes of the child mortality and morbidity. Several socioeconomic factors may influence the malnutrition in children. In children nutritional deficiency may cause diarrhea, recurrent illness and other chronic diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to assess malnutrition in children. The objective of this study is to assess the malnutrition in children by using anthropometric measurement. An observational prospective study was conducted to assess malnutrition of children. Data was obtained by using data collection forms which included information about anthropometric measures such as height, weight, BMI and MUAC of children of age 6 months to 7 years. A total of 160 children were included in the study, of which 55% were male and 45% were female. 35.6% of them were 3 to 5 years old and 41.9% of them were 6months to 2 years and 22.5% children were 6 to 7years. 47.5% of parent’s annual income was less than 1lakh and 31.8% had 1 lakh to 2.5lakh and 20.6% had above 2.5lakh. 39.3%% of the children were severely underweight, 10.6% were moderately underweight and 2.5% children were mild underweight, while 88.7% of children had normal MUAC and 11.25% of them had low MUAC. From the above data 52.5% were malnourished and 47.5% were well nourished. This study concluded children’s underweight measures acute and chronic malnutrition and wasting represents a failure to receive adequate nutrition. Likewise, children`s gender, age, size at birth, height, weight and low MUAC also predicts wasting among children.