School-age somatic, internalizing, attention, and social difficulties in moderate anthropometric undernutrition: a primary-care case-control study.

Background: Moderate anthropometric undernutrition is associated with developmental risks, but the emotional, behavioral, and functional profiles of children with moderate anthropometric undernutrition managed in outpatient primary care follow-up remain insufficiently characterized. Methods: This cross-sectional case-control study examined 60 mother-child dyads in Adana, Türkiye (undernutrition, Results: No statistically significant between-group differences were detected in the measured sociodemographic and general clinical variables, although the sample was not powered to establish equivalence or exclude residual confounding. Children with moderate anthropometric undernutrition were more often described as eating less or showing selective eating, and family relationship quality was less often rated as good. Parent-proxy quality of life, maternal psychological distress, and parenting-related emotion regulation did not differ at the group level. Preschool CBCL scores were comparable. In the CBCL/6-18 subgroup, primary comparisons using age- and sex-normed Conclusion: Because of the cross-sectional design, the direction of these associations cannot be established; they may reflect nutritional influences on psychosocial functioning, behavioral or feeding difficulties contributing to low weight, or shared antecedents of both. These findings suggest a selective school-age psychosocial screening signal, rather than generalized impairment, in outpatient moderate anthropometric undernutrition. Routine nutrition follow-up may benefit from brief behavioral screening, feeding behavior assessment, and family-sensitive primary care support.