Background:
Children under five years of age are most vulnerable to the vicious cycles of malnutrition, disease/infection and resultant disability all of which influence the present condition of a child at the microlevel and the future human resource development of the nation at the macrolevel.
Aim:
The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of undernutrition among under-five children; and to determine the associated factors.
Methods:
All 112 Anganwadi Centres in block Lakhan Majra were enlisted and 30 Anganwadi Centres were selected by adopting systematic random sampling. From each selected Anganwadi Centre, 20 children of 15 years of age group were selected by simple random sampling, thus, a sample of 600 children was included in the study.
Results:
Overall prevalence of undernutrition in our study was found as follows: wasted 18.4%; underweight 38.3%; stunted 41.3%. Mothers who had four or more ANC visits and IFA intake for 100 or more days had lower prevalence of wasting, stunting, and underweight than the mothers with three or less ANC visits and inadequate IFA intake. Children with a history of pre-lacteal feeding had higher prevalence of stunting, underweight, and wasting than the children with no history of pre-lacteal feeding.
Conclusion:
Every endeavor should be made to combat the outcomes of undernutrition through multipronged approach such as growth monitoring, nutritional supplementation, etc., Also, present study findings reinforce the importance of proper infant and child feeding practices and appropriate maternal care in prevention of childhood undernutrition.
Background: The post-natal period is the most critical time for the mother and the newborn. Most of the maternal deaths occur in first month of life. Based on these facts Government of India took an initiative, home based postnatal care (HBPNC), to follow up postnatal mothers and newborns for first six weeks. The present study assessed the quality of HBPNC provided by accredited social health activist (ASHA) workers and various factors associated with it.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted under Community Health Center, Dubaldhan in block Beri of Haryana. A total of 60 ASHA workers were visited and all the postnatal mothers under the supervision of each ASHA worker were included in the study. In this way 264 postnatal mothers were contacted. A scoring system was used to assess the quality of HBPNC given by ASHA worker.Results: Majority of ASHA workers were not able to record temperature and weight of the baby correctly. Regarding care of cord and danger signs in newborn only half (50%) of the mothers were counselled, whereas, only 48% mothers were counseled regarding care of eyes. Statistically significant association of quality of newborn care with education and training attended by ASHA workers was seen.Conclusions: Our study confirmed that most of the new born babies were not getting good quality of home based newborn care. Recent training attended by ASHA worker is highly associated with providing good quality newborn care to babies by ASHA workers.
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