Integrating assessment of nutritional status into the clinical approach to unwell children under 5 in primary care.

Target 2.2 and 3.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is to end all form of malnutrition and to end preventable deaths of under five children respectively. Worldwide, more than half of the under five mortalities have underlying malnutrition. In Malaysia, 30% of the under five mortality are preventable and contributed by substandard care. Failure of healthcare providers to identify malnutrition as co-morbidity is an issue in the conventional “single condition approach” whilst the local prevalence of childhood malnutrition is still notable. The expansion of IMCI strategy that emphasizes whole person approach and integrates nutritional component into routine clinical encounters would aid to achieve both SDGs targe