Abstract

Background: The level of undernutrition in children remains unacceptable throughout the world, with 90% of the devel- oping world’s chronically undernourished (stunted) children living in Asia and Africa.
Objective: To study the nutritional status and to reveal the factors influencing the nutritional status among preschool children.
Materials and Methods: This was a community-based cross-sectional study conducted by carrying out a door-to-door survey among 330 preschool children of age between 0 and 6 years in Kallur primary health center area during March 2014 to September 2014. Weight for age was calculated and child’s age, gender, mother’s education, type of house, type of family, socioeconomic status (modified BG Prasad 2014), religion, and caste of the family were collected. Result: Most of children in the study area were suffering from grade 1 (34.5%) malnutrition followed by grade 2 malnutrition (33.1%), grade 3 malnutrition (6.1%) and grade 4 malnutrition (1.5%). Severe malnutrition constitutes 7.6%. Significant association was found between malnutrition and child’s age, gender, mother’s education, religion, type of house, and family. Conclusion: Severe degree of malnutrition was found only among children of the illiterate mothers. It was also found only among children of families with class 4 and class 5 socioeconomic statuses. Negative association was found between standard of housing and nutritional status.