European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background: Malnutrition is an important and major public health problem in a developing nation like India. Keeping this in mind, a study was conducted to determine the proportion of under-five children with malnutrition among hospitalised under-five-year children and to examine co-morbid diseases and epidemiological factors associated with malnutrition. Methods: This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted in the paediatric ward of a tertiary care hospital in Koraput, Odisha. All children under the age of five years suffering from malnutrition were admitted in the hospital over a period of 1 month were included in the study. Results: The total number of children under the age of five diagnosed with malnutrition was 72 (40.4%). Moderate and severe/very severe malnutrition were statistically significantly higher in the girl child. The proportions of moderate and severe/very severe malnutrition were higher in low-birth-weight babies, i.e., children who were incompletely immunised due to age. Incorrect infant feeding practice was observed in 41 (56.9%) children. Some of the co-morbid conditions that contributed to the morbidity of the malnourished child were acute diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, anaemia, and septicemia. Conclusion: A large proportion of the hospitalised children were malnourished. Girls suffered from moderate to severe malnutrition compared to male children, which was the only statistically significant association. This may be due to the negligence of a girl child