Bahawaluddin Jamro, Arbab Ali Junejo, Shankar Lal, Ghulam Rasool Bouk, Saifullah Jamro.
Risk factors for severe acute malnutrition in children under the age of five year in Sukkur.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;51(4):111-3.

Background: Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) affects approximately 13 million children under the age of 5 year and is associated with 1-2 million preventable child deaths per year. Objectives: To determine the risk factors for severe acute malnutrition in children under the age of five year. Settings and duration: Nutrition stabilization center of Ghulam Muhammad Mahar Medical College Hospital Sukkur from February 2011 to January 2012. Patients and Methods: This was a prospective descriptive study. All children diagnosed as severe acute malnutrition, defined as weight for height measurement of < 70% of the median or > 3 SD below the mean World Health organization reference values or the presence of bilateral pitting edema of nutritional origin admitted in Nutrition Stabilization Center were included in this study. Results: Two hundred seventy (270) children were admitted during study period. The age ranged from 06 to 59 months. Maternal illiteracy was present in 216(80%) and paternal illiteracy in 180(66.7%) cases. Parent’s income was less than 5000/month in 198(73.3%), family size with more than 4 or more children was seen in 180(66.7%) cases. Exclusive breast feeding was present in only 70(25.9%), mixed feeding was seen in 170(62.9%) and only bottle feeding was seen in 30(11.1%) cases. Late weaning was started in 150(55.6%). Recurrent diarrhoea was seen in 120(44.4%). Conclusions: The common risk factors associated with severe acute malnutrition were parental illiteracy, large family size, poverty, non exclusive breast feeding and recurrent diarrhoea. Policy message: To decrease childhood malnutrition mothers should be encouraged for exclusive breast feeding. Parent’s education can play an important role in improving child health.

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