The Problem Of Malnutrition Among Pakistani Children

Abstract

Pakistan is considered in one of the countries which have high rate of child malnutrition. Unfortunately, it is being persistent state from very beginning. This report presents facts and figures about under-nutrition state in Pakistan and its effects and also its consequences on society in Pakistan. It will give you a brief review of available literature on malnutrition and summarize various related information given by already researched evidences by different organizations, institutions, and government associations. All the given statistics is taken from the National Nutrition Surveys and different Journals, approached through Google Search Engine.

Introduction

It is estimated that almost half of children deaths aged below five years are caused because of malnutrition. So, you can guess that child malnutrition is the fundamental cause of child mortality in the world. It is generally found in developing countries worldwide. Malnutrition also causes lower academic achievement and unhealthy physical growth among the children. Child malnutrition is measured through some standards which are underweight, stunted and wasted. Almost fifty percent of all stunted children worldwide reside in Asia and two third of wasted are also found in Asia. As compared to other developing countries, Pakistan has high rate wasting, stunting and underweight. Almost half of children (44%) are stunted, 33% underweight and 15% wasted as evidenced through National Nutrition Survey. It is observed that child malnutrition state is not related with poverty because besides social and economic development, child malnutrition levels are still persisted in developing countries. The major factors contributing to child malnutrition are lack of knowledge of proper nutrition, maternal education, micronutrient intake, lower breastfeeding, birth rate, lower birth weight and infectious diseases.

Methodology

Child malnutrition is reported worldwide. It includes many surveys and statistics obtained through reference population to classify child malnutrition. To monitor the public health sector and nutritional status, child malnutrition is used as an indicator. Some ways are recommended internationally to assess the state of child malnutrition, which are anthropometric indices or measurements. To interpret body measurement these indices are essential because weight individual has no meaning unless it is combined to someone's age or weight. Three most common used anthropometric indices for children are weight for height (wasted), height for age (stunted) and weight for age (underweight). These are used for child malnutrition status for some reference population. In Pakistan, National Nutrition Surveys use these indicators to provide the status and finding of child malnutrition in country. Different other Journals and Reports also use the same way to argue their views and provide the data obtained from evidences. This report gives summarized finding of all these surveys, reports and journals which are studied through internet on different web links, while the care is taken to consider only such data which is related to the subject and topic.

Findings and Results

Causes of Malnutrition:

In Pakistan, where vaccination of children is not uniform and children who are partially immunized or even not immunized they are highly susceptible to infections. Diarrhea, respiratory infections, communicable diseases are most common infectious diseases among children which severely affect their nutritional diet and cause under-nutrition in Pakistan.

Already present birth defects and organic diseases are some other biological factors which cause malnutrition. Congenital defect of gastrointestinal tact severely impact by poor metabolism and absorption of food, diarrhea and swallowing. Several other conditions cause the nutritional disorders. In Pakistan, most of the families don't go medical checkup for their children because this high take care financial resources, hence such condition are left unexamined and children end up catching malnutrition.

Maternal malnutrition, iron deficiency and micronutrient intake are prevailing among pregnant women in Pakistan. The cycle of malnutrition continues to generation by generation when these malnourished and anemic mothers undergo repeated pregnancies. One strong contributing factor of child malnutrition is, poor nutritional status of mothers.

Early cease of breastfeeding and formal feeding are found to be another major cause for malnutrition among young children. For optimal child growth, surely breastfeeding for first two years is an ideal diet but in Pakistan early cease of breastfeeding is actually increasing.

Illiterate mothers are another cause. Unhealthy child feeding practices are prevailing among illiterate mothers, for example, trend of formula feeding via bottles is becoming common practice but not reading instructions on packets results in improper feeding patterns. Illiterate mothers while using these formulas don't sterlize bottle after every feed and also don't boil the water. So, mother's unhealthy and improper feeding practices cause malnutrition consequently.

Socio-cultural facts are also prevailing at family levels. Most common socio-cultural factor is gender inequality. In Pakistan, boy child is more preferred over girl child, and resulting in sufficient nutritional intake for male child while less for female child. This trend affects girl child two ways, firstly, depriving her of essential nutrients and secondly, prolong psychological effects due to ignorance.

Another major cause is restrictions of food during illness, in Pakistani culture, some beliefs that in fever child shouldn't be given milk and rice, in case of diarrhea breastfeeding is ceased etc. According to research these beliefs actually end up in child malnutrition.

Environmental factors like polluted water and poor sanitation are considered causes behind child malnutrition. Lack of access to clean water causes diseases like diarrhea, cholera etc. Improper sanitation and open savage system causes intestinal infections and resulting in malnutrition due to lack of absorption of nutrients.

In Pakistan, small budget allocation for health sector causes lack of access to medical services to majority of population. Lack of primary health care like supplementations and immunizations due to absence of medical services contribute to child malnutrition.

The increasing usage of formula milk feeding is another major cause. In this regard Media plays important role by advertising and depicting that formula milk fed children are healthier than other and thus provoking formula milk use and encouraging parents for its use and consequently resulting in lack of breastfeeding.

Usage of junk food is another cause. Here also media plays its role. Children make their parents buy junk food like, chips, biscuits, sweets, juices, chocolates etc. These foods are attractive but rather lead to child malnutrition.

There are many other minor and major causes of Child Malnutrition but the above mentioned were the main causes noticed while preparation of this report. Pakistan is one of the ten countries in the world where more than half of the under-five year old population suffers from either stunting or wasting, or both. Malnutrition in its different types and forms is a critical issue for the Islamic Republic, which has demonstrated in recent years increased commitment to social development. Over the past two decades, the Pakistani government has notably recorded significant achievements in combating polio, increasing routine immunization, and decreasing the number of out of school children. Progress in stunting reduction, however, has presented mixed results.

According to the latest available figures, the under-5 stunting rate in the country is as high as 44%, the third highest rate in the world, with stunting prevalence being slightly higher in male children (48%) than in female children (42%). Malnutrition status through surveys is shown in figure 2 and 3. While childhood stunting was estimated to drop globally from 40% (95% CI 38.1, 41.4) in 1990 to 25% in 2013, Asia as a whole showed a dramatic decrease over the same period, nearly halving the number of stunted children from 190 million (49% in 1990) to 100 million (28% in 2010). This shows a heavy trend in stunting reduction over time, a global and regional feature. This trend is expected to reach 21.8%, or 142 million, in 2020, globally, and Asia to drop below the symbolic threshold of 20% by 2020. However, Pakistan has only registered a 10-point reduction in stunting prevalence during this period, from a 54.5% stunting rate measured in 1990-91 to 44% measured in 2013. In actual fact, after a decade of slow decrease (1991-2001) the country registered a +3.3%, increase in stunting prevalence since 2001, a striking and worrying reverse trend.

In Pakistan, 26% of primary school-aged children are out of school (national average), which is 22% among boys and 30% among girls. In 2013, diarrheal diseases were estimated to cause 20% of post neonatal deaths (children aged 1-59 months) in Pakistan. Overall, open defecation explains 54% of international variation in child height; in contrast, GDP only explains 29 percent. Poor sanitation also has a financial cost and in 2012 the Water and Sanitation Program reported that Pakistan was losing the equivalent of 3.9% of its GDP every year because of inadequate sanitation and of the consequent deaths or diseases resulting from it.

Conclusion

Malnutrition among young Pakistani children is one of the serious public health issues as well as the most prevalent cause of morbidity and mortality among young children in Pakistan. The determinants of malnutrition among Pakistani children are multiple and are prevalent at the individual, family, community, and nation level. Several studies have shown malnutrition as the reflection of poverty, while other empirical studies have found no association between poverty and child malnutrition. The nutritional status of children is, thus, more likely to be rooted in their illness, nutritional status of their mothers, and environmental and community factors than poverty. The episodes of illness particularly diarrhea reduce the ability of body to convert food into energy. The incidence of diarrhea is still high in Pakistan and environmental conditions at home are not satisfactory. It was clearly evident that higher intensity of child malnutrition prevails in the rural areas of Pakistan. Early marriages, large family size, high fertility rates with a lack of birth spacing, low income, and the lack of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding were found to be major determinants of child malnutrition.

Recommendation

This report includes all related data which was studied through given information on Google Search Engine, which covers already researched material. Further it is suggested that overall facts and figures should be taken through practically undergoing any survey rather than reviewing previous literature.