Background: Preschool children age group is a vulnerable population which needs more attention on nutritional status.
Objectives: 1) To assess nutritional status of under five children with anthropometric measurements. 2) To assess the gender differences in nutritional status by using nutritional status indices.
Material and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in Anganwadi’s from August 2014 to December 2014. 307 preschool children in urban area were selected. Anthropometric measurements like height, weight were taken by using appropriate technique. IAP classification for underweight and WHO classification for stunting and wasting were used.
Results: Out of 307 children 49.51% were girls and 50.48% were boys. The mean Age, Weight in kg and Height in cm was 34 months, 11.8 kg and 86.9 cm respectively. 24.8% had under nutrition, 55% had stunting and 23.1% had wasting. There was a no statistical significant difference between the gender for weight for age and height for age, however it was found statistical significant for weight for height.
Conclusion: There was a high proportion of under nutrition, stunting and wasting among under five children and there was no statistically significant difference between the gender for nutritional status except for weight for height.
Key words: Under five children, Nutritional status
