Frequency of Stunting with Obesity among 2 to 5 Years Old Children in Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: Our study's goal is to find out how common stunting and obesity are among Pakistani children aged 2 to 5 years old.

Study Design: Descriptive study

Place and Duration: Shalamar Medical & Dental College Lahore and Quetta Institute of Medical Sciences. Jan, 2021 to June, 2021.

Methods: There were 130 children with age 2-5 years were presented in this study. Detailed demographics of enrolled cases included age, sex; weight and height were recorded after taking informed written consent from the parents of children. Maternal demographics status was also recorded. Frequency of stunting was recorded with respect to weight of included patients. SPSS 24.0 was used to analyze complete data.

Results: Among 130 children, there were 80 (61.5%) males and 50 (38.5%) females in this study. The mean age of the included children was 5.9±12.42 years and had mean weight 17.16±12.52 kg. Children had mean height 109.5±11.22 cm. Majority of the patients were underweight 75 (57.7%), 45 (34.6%) children were obese and frequency of severe underweight were 10 (7.7%). As per maternal status, majority were had poor socio economic status. Frequency of stunted children was 19 (14.6%), in which 8 (4.6%) cases were obese while remaining 13 (10%) were underweighted. Among 19 cases of stunted children, 11 (57.9%) were females and 8 (42.1%) were males.

Conclusion: We concluded in this study that prevalence of stunting among obese children was 4.6% and majority were females in these cases. Poor-socioeconomic status of mothers was the most common factor of stunting among children.  Treatments that can address these issues, such as community-based education and focused nutritional interventions, are thus needed to lessen the impact of malnutrition.

Keywords: Children, Obese, Stunt, Underweight, Gender