Nutritional status of school-age children - A scenario of urban slums in India

Archives of Public Health

Anurag Srivastava²  Syed E Mahmood³  Payal M Srivastava¹  Ved P Shrotriya¹  Bhushan Kumar¹ 

[1] Department of Community Medicine, Shri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Medical Sciences, Bareilly (U.P.), India

[2] G-48 Sanjay Gandhi Puram Faizabad Road, Lucknow (U.P.), India

[3] Department of Community Medicine, Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital, Bareilly (U.P.), India

关键词: Wasting;    Stunting;    School-age Children;    Malnutrition;    Growth monitoring;   

Others  :  791207
DOI  :  10.1186/0778-7367-70-8

 received in 2011-07-19, accepted in 2012-04-17,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

One of the greatest problems for India is undernutrition among children. The country is still struggling with this problem. Malnutrition, the condition resulting from faulty nutrition, weakens the immune system and causes significant growth and cognitive delay. Growth assessment is the measurement that best defines the health and nutritional status of children, while also providing an indirect measurement of well-being for the entire population.

Methods

A cross-sectional study, in which we explored nutritional status in school-age slum children and analyze factors associated with malnutrition with the help of a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire, anthropometric measurements and clinical examination from December 2010 to April 2011 in urban slums of Bareilly, Uttar-Pradesh (UP), India.

Result

The mean height and weight of boys and girls in the study group was lower than the CDC 2000 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) standards in all age groups. Regarding nutritional status, prevalence of stunting and underweight was highest in age group 11 yrs to 13 yrs whereas prevalence of wasting was highest in age group 5 yrs to 7 yrs. Except refractive errors all illnesses are more common among girls, but this gender difference is statistically significant only for anemia and rickets. The risk of malnutrition was significantly higher among children living in joint families, children whose mother's education was [less than or equal to] 6th standard and children with working mothers.

Conclusions

Most of the school-age slum children in our study had a poor nutritional status. Interventions such as skills-based nutrition education, fortification of food items, effective infection control, training of public healthcare workers and delivery of integrated programs are recommended.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Srivastava et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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