Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Child Health: A Case Study of Sargodha District

Abstract

In the modern era, malnutrition in children is the primary cause of sickness and mortality worldwide, but especially in underdeveloped nations. Children who are malnourished experience significant delays in their physical development and academic success. The main objective was to investigate the socio-economic determinants influencing the health of children in the Sargodha District. Population of the present study was parents, having at least one child. Multi stage sampling method was used and study was quantitative in nature. Since maximum of the population comprised of literate parents, therefore, questionnaire was used as tool of data collection. Major findings revealed that: majority of the respondents agreed that families with higher socio-economic status (SES) can better nurture their children than those with lower SES and parents with lower SES cannot give their children proper health facilities. Majority also agreed that poor sanitation in slums; polluted environment, less education, lack of parental awareness, mental and physical stress, marital friction, larger family size, poverty & scarcity of economic resources are contributing factors towards child health problems. Moreover, the study suggests supply of adequate amount of fundsnd good governance to combat these issues.