Prevalence and Risk Factors of Malnutrition among Young Children in India: Evidence from Literature

Poor nutrition is responsible for death of 45% under-five children in developing countries including India. The aim of this review is to collate and synthesize published literature to understand the prevalence of malnutrition and its risk factors among Indian children. The primary research question was 'What is the prevalence and risk factors of malnutrition among Indian children? Cross sectional, case-control and cohort studies were included for this review. Literature published between 2000-2017, that contained data related to India and written in English language were included for this review. At the first stage, 149 papers were identified through different electronic sources and finally 15 papers were met all inclusion criteria. We found high prevalence of malnutrition inmost states of India. Gender and age differences in prevalence of malnutrition were evident. Socio-cultural factors like religion, caste, parents1 educational status and socio-economic status and infant feeding factors like initiation of breast-feeding and complementary feeding were some of the risk factors of malnutrition.