Background: Under- Five children are the most vulnerable group in the community. They are at a risk for getting various diseases such as Diarrhea, pneumonia, malnutrition, which may lead to childhood mortality. It was aimed to bring down the Under-five mortality to 25 per 1000 live birth under SDG whereas; in India the mortality rate of under-five was recorded at 41.9% (NFHS-5 (2019-21)). Malnutrition is the major risk factor towards mortality and morbidity among under five-year children. It makes child more susceptible for infectious diseases by affecting the immune system. It delays the physical, intellectual, cognitive as well as psychomotor growth of a child. Hence, the present study was undertaken with the objectives to identify the malnourished children in the selected community and identify the determinants of malnutrition.

Methods: A descriptive research design was used for the present study. Subjects were comprised of children (1-5 years) and their mothers residing in Gola and Adhoya village of District Ambala. Total 446 subjects were enrolled in the study by using total enumeration sampling technique. Prior to the data collection ethical permission was obtained from faculty of Nursing MMDU, Mullana and written informed consent was taken from mothers of under-five children. Data was collected by home to home survey from September 2020 to May 2021. Interview schedule was used to collect the Socio- demographic data of Child and mothers of under-five children. Nutritional status of children assessed through WHO weight for age chart.

Results: Results of the study shows that Less than half (41%) of children were in the age group of 1 to 3 years. Less than two-third (61%) study subjects were male and 39% were females. In the study, most of the under five children were fully immunized. More than half (52%) were having normal nutritional status whereas 48% were found to be malnourished. In the present study, the level of nutritional status was found to be highly significant (< 0.0001) with age of child, gender, immunization status, exclusive breast feeding, birth weight, timing of initiation of complementary feeding, age of mother, mothers’ educational status, occupation and socio-economic status of family, at 0.05 level of significance.

Conclusion: In the present study, prevalence of malnutrition was 48%. Factors like age, gender of the child, exclusive breast feeding, birth weight, timing of complementary feeding, economic status of the family, maternal age, education, occupation have influence on nutritional status of the child. Improvement of maternal education will improve the nutritional status of the child. Some strategies to combat malnutrition should be made at local levels and these strategies can be used by nurses and other health professionals working in community.

Keywords: Under-five children; Health status; Malnutrition