Association between Household Food Insecurity and Nutritional Status Among Preschool Children in Dir Lower Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Abstract

To examine the effect of household food insecurity on the nutritional status of children and to determine the prevalence of stunted, wasted and under-weight children in the city, Timergara. A cross-sectional study was performed among 286 families from Timergara using simple random sampling. Mothers or caregivers were interviewed by the researcher himself to assess the household food insecurity and anthropometric measurements were administered. World Health Organization (WHO) Anthro Plus survey Analyzer and SPSS were utilized to analyze the data.The prevalence of severely underweight, severely stunted, and severely wasted were 1.7%, 0.7% and 3.5 respectively. Among the samples, 46.2 %, 0.7%, 19.6% and 33.6% were food secure, mildly, moderate & severe food insecure respectively.Household insecurity (Food security, Mild food insecurity, moderate food insecurity & severe food insecurity) and weight for age (Severely underweight, underweight, normal weight) as χ2 (9) =20.87; p=.002 were significantly associated.All things considered, it’s deduced that household food security and availability of food can enhance child’s development, maturation, nutriments, and nutritional condition.