Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Malnutrition amongst Under-Five Years Children in Swat, Pakistan: Prevalence and Risk Factors

H Ullah¹, B Ullah², S Karim³, I Tariq³, AK Khan⁴, S Mir⁴, A Baseer¹, S Azhar¹, G Murtaza¹

¹Department of Pharmacy, COMSATS Institute of information Technology, Abbottabad 22060; ²Department of Surgery, Saidu Teaching Hospital, Swat; ³University College of Pharmacy, University of Punjab, Lahore; ⁴Department of Chemistry, COMSATS Institute of information Technology, Abbottabad 22060, Pakistan.

For correspondence:- Murtaza Email: gmdogar356@gmail.com Tel:+923142082826

Received: 17 May 2014 Accepted: 14 July 2014 Published: 18 August 2014

Citation: Ullah H, Ullah B, Karim S, Tariq I, Khan A, Mir S, et al. Malnutrition amongst Under-Five Years Children in Swat, Pakistan: Prevalence and Risk Factors. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(8):1367-1370 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i8.24

© 2014 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To identify malnourished cases and determine their relationship with weaning time and socioeconomic factors in under-5 children in Swat, Pakistan.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Pediatric Ward and Outpatients Department (OPD), Saidu Teaching Hospital, Swat, Pakistan using case files from October to December 2011.

Results: A total of 186 children were studied to identify malnutrition, out of which 101 (37.7 %) were male and 85 (32.0 %) female. Moreover, 95 (35.7 %) of the mothers were < 30 years of age and 91 (34.0 %) > 30 years. About 33.7 % of the children were weaned before the age of 4 months. The maternal age of 28.6 % of the malnourished children was < 20 years, and about 2l % of the malnourished children were not immunized against eight EPI (Expanded Program on Immunization) target diseases, viz, poliomyelitis, neonatal tetanus, measles, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), hepatitis-B, Hib pneumonia & meningitis, and childhood tuberculosis. Respondents from urban location 98 (36.7 %), while 88 (33.0 %). Based on Gomez’s classification, out of 186 children, 19 (7.1 %) were victims of malnutrition; mothers of 35.6 % of the children were uneducated and 25.5 % had primary level (5 years) education. The number of siblings per mother was ≥ 5 in the case of 64.8 % of the malnourished children. More than half of the children were at risk of malnutrition.

Conclusion: The incidence of malnutrition is about the same for both male and female children. Risk factors for malnutrition in the children include lack of education, teenage pregnancy, lack of immunization, and large family size.

Keywords: Malnutrition, Gomezâ€™s classification, Weaning time, Risk factors, Teenage pregnancy, Swat