Assessment Of Nutritional Status Of Under-Five Children Residing In Rural Area - A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background and Objectives India is home to more than one-third of the world’s under-nourished children. According to the WHO Health statistics of 2012 for India, the proportion of stunting was 47.9% and that of underweight was 43.5%. According to the NFHS -3 survey conducted in 2005-06, 48% of children were stunted, 20% were wasted and 43% were underweight. In Karnataka, the prevalence of under- weight ranges from 35% to 39%. The objectives of the present study were to assess the nutritional status of under- five children and to find the factors associated with it. Methods The present cross sectional study was conducted in Handignur Primary Health Centre from January 2011 to December 2011. 933 children in the age group of 1-5yrs of age were selected by simple random technique. A pre-designed and pre- tested questionnaire was used to collect demographic information, breastfeeding practices, socio-cultural and economic factors and anthropometric data. Children were considered as with underweight, stunting and wasting if their weight for age, height for age and weight for height z scores were below -2 SD of WHO standards. Results In the present study out of 933 children, 48.55 % were males and 51.45% were females. Majority of the children belonged to Class IV ( 32.2% ) and Class V ( 30% ) , 24% belonged to Class III, 11.4% Class II and only 2.5% belonged to III Class I. The overall prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was 32.36 %, 34.19 % and 22.07%, respectively. 8.3 %, 12.8 % and 7.4 % of children were found to be severely underweight, stunted and wasted, respectively. By using NCHS reference, the prevalence of wasting, underweight and stunting in our study was 23.6%, 46.6% and 33.1% respectively. Kappa statistics showed a good agreement between WHO and NCHS standards with a kappa value of > 0.6. Type of family, overcrowding, existing co-morbidities, birth order, birth weight, duration of exclusive breast feeding and administration of pre-lacteal feeds were found to have an adverse effect on the nutritional status. Conclusion and interpretation Faulty feeding practices like use of pre-lacteal feeds, delayed age of weaning and inappropriate choice of weaning food were commonly observed in this area and majority of the children’s diet was not adequate for calories and proteins as per ICMR guidelines. Though ICDS tries to combat malnutrition in children, this should be implemented properly so as to identify malnutrition at an early stage