Role of sociocultural perceptions in malnutrition of children under the age of 5 years in a semi-urban community of Pakistan

Objective: to assess the impact of sociocultural perception on the nutritional status of children under five years of age. methods: this cross-sectional study using a self-constructed questionnaire was conducted at the shifa rotary clinic,nurpur shahan,pakistan,from february to october 2016,and comprised mothers and children. mothers age 18-45years having a child less than 5 years old were included. spss 21 was used for data analysis. results: of the 564 participants,526(93.3%) were housewives and 38(6.5%) were working mothers. the overall mean age was 27.49±5.197 years. mother was the decision-maker for child nutrition in 344(61.0%) cases while the father was the decision-maker for child nutrition in 106(18.8%) cases. about 64(11.3%) wasted colostrums,of which 18(28.1%) acted on their own accord 46(71.9%) on others' advice. mother as the decision-maker for child nutrition was found to be significantly associated with normal child nutritional status (p<0.05).in our study male child was 2.29 times likely to have a normal nutritional status as compared to a female child (p<0.05). conclusion: sociocultural perceptions were found to have a significant impact on nutritional status of children under the age of 5 years. © 2017,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.