Prevalence of Wasting and its Associated Factors among Children Under 5 Years of Age in India: Findings from the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey.

Background: The burden of wasting among under five children in India, has not reduced in the last decade.

Objectives: We used child-level data from the latest nationally representative Comprehensive National Nutritional Survey (CNNS) to estimate the prevalence of wasting at the national and state level in India.

Methods: We explored the association of wasting with maternal, child and household factors using multivariable logistic regression for the age group of 0-5, 6-23 and 24-59 months.

Results: The overall prevalence of wasting was 17.3%, ranging from 5.8% to 29.1% across states, 23.3% in children 0-5 months, 19.6 % in children 6-23 months and 15.4 % in children 24-59 months of age. Higher birthweight i.e., every 100g increase (0-5 months aOR = 0.96, 6-23 months aOR = 0.94, 24-59 months aOR = 0.96), higher maternal BMI (0-5 months aOR = 0.51, 6-23 months aOR = 0.62, 24-59 months aOR = 0.67), increasing child age in months (0-5 months aOR = 0.84) and female sex of the child (24-59 months aOR = 0.82) was found to have significantly lower odds of wasting. The odds of wasting were significantly higher for poorest wealth quintile (0-5 months aOR = 1.99, 6-23 months aOR = 2.13), maternal unemployment (0-5 months aOR = 2.25), and lower levels of maternal education (6-23 months aOR = 1.74).

Conclusions: Our analyses showed that burden of wasting continues to remain high in India. Preventive interventions must target reduction of low birthweight. Early identification and management of wasting should be done, especially during the first six months of life who are not part of current therapeutic feeding programme.