Samiran Bisai
Abstract
Objective: To assess the overall nutritional status of Santal tribal preschool children of Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal, India. Methods: A cross sectional ...
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Objective: To assess the overall nutritional status of Santal tribal preschool children of Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal, India. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from February 2012 to September, 2012 in the Santal tribal community of rural area of Paschim Medinipur District, West Bengal. The study children were selected multi stage cluster sampling method. The level of underweight, stunting and wasting was assessed using standard deviation (SD) classification as against National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference standards. Results: This study comprises of 299 (boys=153, girls=146) Santal preschool children age between 0-5 years to assess the prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting. Overall prevalence of underweight was 65.2%, out of, 54.2% and 11.0% children are found to be moderate and severe underweight. It is found that the severe underweight was significantly higher among girls than the boys (15.1% vs 7.2%, p<0.05). Boys had 2.3 (OR=2.29, 95%CI:1.07-4.91) fold greater risk of being severe underweight. Overall the prevalence of stunting was 54.2%. Among them 31.4% and 22.7% children were experiencing moderate and severe stunting. Moreover, overall prevalence of wasting was 20.1%, out of, 17.4% and 2.7% children were found to be moderate and severe wasting. Conclusion: As per WHO classification for assessing severity of malnutrition, this study found very high rates of malnutrition in the form of underweight, stunting and wasting, indicating a critical situation. Therefore respective authority should be undertaken an effective public health strategy to combat child malnutrition among socio-economically vulnerable communities in India and adjoining countries.
