PTI, Karachi — Nearly half of all the families in Pakistan are unable to meet their nutritional needs due to poverty, affecting a large number of children with chronic malnutrition and stunted growth, a media report on Friday quoted the first-ever survey of its kind in the cash-strapped country as saying.

According to the National Nutrition Survey 2018, poverty keeps more than 50 per cent of Pakistani families from having two meals a day, leading to severe dietary deficiencies, The Express Tribune reported.

As a result, as many as 40.2 per cent of all children in Pakistan are affected by chronic malnutrition and stunted growth, which inhibits both their cognitive and physical development, the exercise carried out by the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) revealed.

The survey also discovered that 36.9 per cent of Pakistani households remain food insecure and lack reliable access to affordable nutritious food in sufficient amounts.

The objective of the survey is to draw the attention of authorities towards the ever-growing problem of malnutrition among Pakistani children.

The survey is one of the biggest in Pakistan’s history and covers both the rural and urban population of all four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

As many as 115,600 families, including 145,324 women, 76,742 children under five years of age and 145,847 minors aged between 10 and 19 years were studied during the course of the survey, the report said.

Teams conducting the research took blood and urine samples from participants and investigated water quality and sewerage situation in and around their homes to determine their natural body development and whether it was hindered by diseases or lack of nutrients, it said.