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Nearly one in three persons globally suffers from at least one form of malnutrition: wasting, stunting, vitamin and mineral deficiency, overweight or obesity and diet-related Non-Communicable Diseases1. Malnutrition is widely known as under-nutrition until and unless it is not specified. It accounts for at least half of all childhood deaths worldwide. Malnutrition is considered as fundamental cause of morbidity and mortality among the children2,3. It also poses a risk to childrens physical and mental development, which results in poor academic achievement. Malnutrition affects the future health and socioeconomic development of children and the dynamic prospective of the society4,5.
In the last two decades, there has been a little reduction in the prevalence of child malnutrition in Pakistan compared to other developing countries. The prevalence of all types of malnutrition in Pakistan was found to be higher than the global threshold value. It was found that malnutrition starts at an early age and remains persistent at later stages6.
According to the National Nutrition Survey 2011, it has been reported that 13.4 million (43%) of children under the age of five in Pakistan are moderately or severely stunted, 9.9 million (32%) are moderately or severely underweight, and 4.8 million (15.1%) children under five years of age are wasted. 50 percent of the children were anemic, and 33% were anemic from iron deficiency7.
The contributing factors in childhood malnutrition are low birth weight, inadequate breast feeding and exclusive breastfeeding, inappropriate complementary feeding, maternal education, lack of proper knowledge of nutrition, micronutrient intake, parity, birth spacing, household socioeconomic status, food insecurity, poor sanitation, vaccination, and infectious diseases8.
Anemia among pregnant women has increased to 52 percent. Maternal anemia is associated with reduced birth weight and increased risk of maternal mortality. Anemia rates have been worsen over the past two decades. Children who are born with intrauterine growth restriction and low birth weight have a greater risk of morbidity and mortality. These children usually continued with slow growth rate resulted in stunting, slow mental growth and remained underweight9Comparison of National Nutrition Survey 2001, 2011 and PDHS 2017-18 showed that over the last 18 years there is slight improvement in few aspects of malnutrition but generally the malnutrition status among children and women is stalling or further deteriorated. Iodine deficiency among women and children has decreased (improved).
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