Nutritional Status of Children and its Relation to Maternal Factors: An Endeavor Toward Better-Nourished Western Rural India

Introduction: Malnutrition has a direct impact on infant mortality rate and under-five mortality rates, which are prime indicators of the health status of a country. COVID-19 has also substantially affected the nutritional status of children. Hence, the objective is to highlight the magnitude of malnutrition and associated maternal factors in rural areas of Rajkot district. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2021 to May 2022 among children up to six years of age registered in the Anganwadi centers (AWCs) of Rajkot district. To achieve the desired sample size of 504, a multi-stage sampling method was used. Statistical significance for all comparisons was based on the Chi-square test and factors with P value <0.05 were considered for binary logistic regression. For nutritional status assessment, a Z-score was obtained using WHO Anthro 2011 software. Results: Out of the total 504 participants, 50.2% were female and 49.8% were male. The mean age of the participants was 32.43 ± 18.7 months Prevalence of underweight, stunting, and wasting was found to be 39.1%, 36.7%, and 30.5%, respectively. After adjustment by binary logistic regression, a significant correlation was found between different forms of malnutrition and the age of participants, education of the mother, type of family, socio-economic class, mother’s age at the birth of participants, and birth weight. ( P < 0.05). Conclusions: The prevalence of acute malnutrition (wasting) is higher than the national, state, and regional average in this study. Thus, more emphasis should be given to better utilization of services such as nutritional supplementation, nutritional rehabilitation, and growth monitoring along with treatment of morbidities.