Abstract
Background
In Pakistan, this is a catastrophe for 44% children combating with stunted growth; the third highest percentage of stunted children in the world and further 1 million children are underweight. Fifteen percent of children are wasted and half of them are anemic, and almost one-third of the children have iron deficiency anemia. The study aimed to collate all contributing factors that have been reported in the PDHS-2012-13 survey for child malnutrition.
Methods
Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, 2012-13 data was used (n = 1967). Forty five factors were extracted from PDHS 2012-13 and factor analysis was performed to reduce these factors into similar potential factors by using principle component (PC) decomposition. Malnutrition status of children of age < 5 years was assessed by using three indices: height-for-age, weight-for-height, and weight for age. To examine the associations between derived factors and childhood malnutrition, binary logistic regression was used.
Results
About 43% of under-five children are stunted, 26.9% are underweight and 12.6% are wasted. Multivariate adjusted results showed mothers who belong to poor quintile (OR: 1.50, p-value 0.02), who afraid of husband all the time (OR: 1.36, p-value 0.02), who had > 4 children (OR: 1.47, p-value <0.01), and who used tobacco (OR: 1.80, p-value 0.02) were more likely to have stunted children. However, mothers who had no education (OR: 1.82, p-value<0.01), who were poor dweller (OR: 1.55, p-value 0.03), who used unprotected water (OR: 1.62, p-value<0.01), mothers who had younger age at birth (OR: 1.37, p-value 0.02) were more likely have underweight children.
Conclusions
Maternal socio-demographics and environmental factors were more significantly associated with child malnutrition. This study will enable the public health professionals' workforce tier at a national level to gain expertise and formulate better planning in order to improve child health in Pakistan.
Key messages
This study will enable the public health professionals’ workforce tier to achieve gains in child health in Pakistan. Study findings may help to improved and to initiate evidence-based guidelines for maternal and child health.
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