In this region of lower Sindh, stunting is more common than wasting. Female illiteracy, poor household income and overcrowding are important risk factors for stunting. The prevalent belief that in rural Pakistan, parents pay attention to feeding male children at the cost of female children is not proven by these data.

This study demonstrated that the acute diarrhea is major problem among children in rural Pakistan. Appropriate intervention programmes should be formulated focused on identified risk factors.

Objective: To determine the frequency of low mid upper arm circumference(MUAC) of children with acute malnutrition. Patients and methods: This study was conducted inthe department of paediatrics at Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad from 01-06-2012 to 30-11-2012. All the children with features of malnutrition, of either gender were recruited andevaluated for their mid upper arm circumference which was measured through plastic measuringtape. Result: During six month study period, total 135 children with acute malnutrition werestudied for their mid upper arm circumference (MUAC), of which 95(70%) were males and40(30%) were females. The mean age ±SD of overall population was 30.24±10.57 month whilethe mean age of male children was 32.88±11.76 and the female child was 31.62±10.97 months.Regarding the MUAC, was low in 93(68.9%) children with acute malnutrition. The mean age ±SDof child with low MUAC was 28.99±12.52 while the mean ±age of male and female child with lowMUAC was 27.63±10.73 and 29.85±11.64 respectively. The mean MUAC in children of acutemalnutrition with low MUAC was 8.85±3.93 while it was 8.66±3.96 and 8.93±3.31 in male andfemale child with low MUAC respectively. Conclusions: The present study suggested that MUACis appropriate and good tool for identifying severe malnutrition in children.