Prevalence of Underweight and its Risk Factors amongst Under-Five Children in a Rural Area of Varanasi District in Uttar Pradesh, India

ABSTRACT

Globally more than half of the under-five deaths are attributable to undernutrition. Under-nutrition is a major cause in more than half of under-five deaths. A community-based cross-sectional observational study was done in the rural area of Todarpur Village of Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh India, which is the field practice area of Rural Health Training Centre under the Department of Community Medicine, Heritage Institute of Medical Sciences. The study period was January-April 2018. The prevalence of underweight was lower in comparison to National and State-based prevalence. Most of the underweight children were infants, females, whose mother was illiterate and those who belong to lower socio-economic status and SCT/ST community. Therefore, this section of the society is the most vulnerable group for malnutrition and appropriate cost-effective strategies and intervention are needed to address the burden of malnutrition in this section of society.