International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | August 2022 | Vol 9 | Issue 8 Page 3095 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Khan S et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2022 Aug;9(8):3095-3100 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Malnutrition and its associated factors among children in Murree, Rawalpindi Shahrukh Khan 1 , Aqsa Nazir 2 , Amna Shehzad 1 , Junaid Abid 3 , Ameena Qaiser 4 , Tayyab Mumtaz Khan 5 * INTRODUCTION Malnutrition shows a decline in health due to the disproportion of nutrients and energy in the body. Malnutrition is one of the main risk factors related to children’s morbidity and mortality. It is estimated that about 52.50% of child mortality is linked to malnutrition and its associated diseases. 1 Malnutrition is a crucial medical problem in approximately every region of the globe and particularly in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. In several developing nations, stunting, underweight, and micronutrient deficiencies among children are common due to insufficient nutrition and ABSTRACT Background: Malnutrition is one of the main health issues among children. Malnutrition is more prevalent in developing countries. Malnutrition among children is affected by many factors. These factors are studied in many parts of the world but they are understudied in most the areas of Pakistan. This study aimed to assess the incidence of malnutrition and its associated factors among children in Murree, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among children of Murree, Rawalpindi for about 6 months from August 2021 to January 2022. Simple random sampling along with an established inclusion and exclusion criteria was applied to enroll 316 participants. A self-adapted questionnaire was applied to take data after taking ethical approval from the institutional research board and informed consent from the participants. Results: The incidence of underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity among school children of study population was 22.80%, 35.40%, 26.90%, and 14.90% respectively. The association between malnutrition and gender (p=0.001), birth weight (p=0.01), supplementation intake (p=0.03), filtered water use (p=0.02), hygiene (p=0.01), vaccination status (p=0.04), recurrent infection history (p=0.02), socioeconomic status (p=0.04), mother education (p=0.04), mother occupation (p=0.03), awareness of parents about balanced diet (p=0.02), and family size (p=0.04) was statistically significant, whereas association between nutritional status and age group (p=0.05) was insignificant. Conclusions: The incidence of underweight, overweight, and obesity was remarkable among children. Many factors such as gender, birth weight, supplementation intake, filtered water use, hygiene, vaccination status, recurrent infection, socioeconomic status, mother education, mother occupation, parental awareness about a balanced diet, and family size were found to associate with malnutrition among children. Keywords: Incidence, Malnutrition, Associated, Factors, Children, Rawalpindi 1 University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan 2 University of Agriculture, Faisalabad Pakistan 3 University of Haripur, Pakistan 4 Superior University, Lahore, Pakistan 5 Rawalpindi Medical University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan Received: 08 June 2022 Accepted: 29 June 2022 *Correspondence: Dr. Tayyab Mumtaz Khan, E-mail: tayyab.mkhan98@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20222006