Stunting among children in district east Karachi, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

To study stunting problem in children attending schools in District East of Karachi, to calculate prevalence of stunting on the basis of study and compare it with national data and to suggest intervention to prevent stunting in school children. Cross sectional epidemiological study. This study was conducted on the school children of Karachi during February 2012 to February 2013. 164 randomly selected children attending private and government schools in Karachi East. There were 164 total children out of them 81 [49.40%] were male and 83 [50.60%] female. Stunting was present in 101 [61.5%], normal height and weight was observed in 7 [4.26%]. Stunting and not stunting proportion of 164 children among them 101 were stunted and 64 were not stunted [P< 0.05]. The study showed the stunting in Karachi needs nutritional intervention and public health and community health education to halt stunting problem in school health children in Karachi east