Manuscript title: Prevalence and determinants of undernutrition among under-five children residing in urban slums and rural area, Maharashtra, India: a community-based cross-sectional study
Abstract Background: Undernutrition among under five children in India is a major public health problem. Despite India’s growth in the economy, the child mortality rate due to undernutrition is still high in both urban and rural areas. Studies that focus on urban slums are scarce. Hence the present study was carried out to assess the prevalence and determinants of undernutrition.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 16 randomly selected clusters in two districts of Maharashtra state, India. Data were collected through the house to house survey by interviewing mothers of under five children. Logistic regression method was used for multivariate analysis to determine the association between the variables like sex of the child, type of family, the income of the family, birth order, exclusive breastfeeding, immunization status, ARI, diarrhea, maternal age, maternal education with outcome variables underweight, stunting and wasting.Results: Total 2929 mothers and their 3,671 under five children were covered. Prevalence of wasting, stunting and underweight were more seen in an urban slum than a rural area.Exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months was the protective factor against wasting in both rural area (Adj OR=0.35,p<0.001)and urban slum(Adj OR=0.47,p<0.05),Acute diarrhea was associated with wasting in rural area(Adj OR=0.11,p=0.001).Boys were more prone to stunting in the urban slum(Adj OR=1.77,p<0.05). Children with birth order 2 or less than 2 were more affected by stunting in the rural area (Adj OR=.11, p<0.05). The joint family acted as a protective factor against stunting in the urban slum(Adj OR=0.56,p<0.05).Whereas exclusive breastfeeding up to six months of age was seen as a protective factor against underweight in the rural area (Adj OR=0.50,p<0.05). The low income of the family has resulted in underweight children in an urban slum (Adj OR=2.16, p<0.05). Low maternal education was related to underweight in children (Adj OR=0.44, p,0.05)Conclusion: Undernutrition was related to the sex of the child, the economic status of the family, diarrhea (Past 1 month), and maternal education. Improvement of maternal education will improve the nutritional status of the child.The trial registration-This article is part of baseline data of the project, hence not related to trial registration. After baseline data principal investigator had done trial registration retrospectively.