Abstract

Objective: To find the relationship between mother’s area of residence, education and household wealth on child’s nutritional status.
Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted in Punjab Province, Pakistan from May 2011 to August 2011. The data were collected through structured questionnaire from a sample of 102,545 households with an exceptional response-rate of 97 percent. Simple Linear Regression Analysis was applied with 95% confidence interval to determine the relationship between mother’s education, area of residence and household wealth (independent variables) and child’s nutritional status (dependent variable).
Results: There was a positive and significant relationship between all the independent variables with the dependent variable. The BMI of the child increased by changing the area of residence of mother from rural to urban, increased with the increase in the education level of mother and increased as the wealth index of the household rose.
Conclusion: There was a positive, direct relationship between the health of children and mothers’ residential area, education level and family’s wealth-status.

Key words: Child Nutritional Status, Reproductive Aged Mothers, BMI, Socio-demographic Factors.