Association of Regional Disparity and Socioeconomic Determinants with Acute Malnutrition among Children Aged 6-59 Months in Public Hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan.

Objective This study aimed to examine the association of regional disparity and socioeconomic determinants with acute malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months attending selected public hospitals in Karachi. Methods A hospital-based unmatched case-control study was conducted on 394 participants with 197 cases and 197 controls. After developing a self-structured questionnaire based on maternal and child components, wealth quintiles were made using principal component analysis. A univariate and then a binary logistic regression was applied. Results The odds of acute malnutrition were 1.2 times higher in male children. The variables significantly associated with childhood acute malnutrition were regional disparity [AOR=2.3, 95%, C. I (1.4-3.8), p-value <0.01], mother’s illiteracy [AOR = 3.6, 95% C. I (1.9-7), p-value <0.001], mother’s primary education [AOR =1.1, 95% C. I (0.5-2.2), p-value <0.01], father’s illiteracy [AOR= 2.4, 95% C. I (0.8-4.4), p-value 0.03], father’s primary education [AOR =1.1, 95% C. I (0.4-1.9), p-value <0.01], poorest households [AOR= 2.2, 95% C. I (1.07-4.7), p-value <0.01], and child’s age [AOR =0.945, 95% C. I (0.92-0.96), p-value <0.01]. Conclusion Regional disparity was found to be significantly associated with acute malnutrition among children along with household wealth status, mother’s illiteracy, and father’s illiteracy. Hence there is a need to direct the focus of policy makers to work on these factors to eradicate acute malnutrition among children.