Prevalence of undernutrition and its determinants among preschool children in a rural community of Shimoga, Karnataka

Abstract

Background: Undernutrition is a major health and nutrition problem in India especially among preschool children. It is an important cause of childhood mortality and morbidity and also leads to permanent impairment of physical and mental growth of those who survive. The objective of the study was to estimate the prevalence of undernutrition among preschool children in the study setting and to determine various factors associated with undernutrition of the child.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 400 preschool children in the field practice area of PHC Aaynoor, Shivamogga, Karnataka. Cluster sampling technique was used for sample selection. Data was collected by interviewing the parent /guardian using a pretested and semistructured questionnaire and anthropometric measurements were done as per standard techniques. Statistical analysis was done using WHO Epi-info software version 3.5.4.Results: The prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was observed in 38%, 43% and 15.8% of children respectively. The study found significant association between the prevalence of undernutrition and gender, birth weight, birth order, number of siblings, caste, paternal literacy and availability of toilet in the house of the child.Conclusions: The present study revealed that the problem of undernutrition is critical in the study area and identifies multiple risk factors for its causation, thereby signifying a well - coordinated multi sectorial approach to curb the same.

Feeding Practices and Its Association With Nutritional Status of Under 5 Children - A Cross-Sectional Study in Northern Part of India

“…This suggests that marginalized section of society, irrespective of religion is more affected. Similarly, Mane et al, (2018) could not find any association between the prevalence of wasting and stunting with religion of children, this finding is similar with our results.…”

“…This distribution is also not statistically significant. Similarly, Mane et al, (2018) in their study among under five in Shivamoga, Karnataka found that prevalence of stunting was directly proportional to birth order of children and this association is statistically significant (p=0.023).…”

“…Dabale & Sharma, (2014) also reported that small size at birth was found to be a significant risk factor for wasting. Mane et al (2018) in their study among under five in Shivamoga, Karnataka found that stunting and wasting were significantly more in children who had low birth weight compared to others. Khan et al, (2019) reported that children that were of smaller than average size at time of birth (OR = 1.48, 95%CI 1.02-2.16) were more likely to be stunted.…”

Nutritional status and its concomitant factors among pre-school children in Malda, India: A micro-level study using a multilevel approach

“…After having a perusal of the previous studies, it is found that there is an anomaly in the age group selection for pre-school children in the studies of Indian settings as well as studies conducted in foreign countries (28,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39). The age group ranges from 0-7 years in these studies.…”

“…Leaving aside the debate of age groups of pre-school children, this study surveyed the previous studies which investigated the risk factors of stunting among younger children. It has been found that individual child characteristics, e.g., child's age, sex, birth interval, birth order and birth weight are the associated factors of stunting (32,34,36,37,43,44). Many studies found that children born with low birth weight are more prone to become stunted in their childhood (45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51).…”