A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY ON PREVALENCE AND DETERMINANTS OF UNDERWEIGHT AMONG 0 TO 5 YEARS CHILDREN IN A PERI- URBAN AREA OF AGARTALA.
Dr. Rituparna Das*, Dr. Arjun Saha, Tanusree Chakroborty and Mousumi Sarkar
ABSTRACT
Background: Malnutrition is a major public health problem in developing countries like India and is one of the most common causes of childhood morbidity and mortality. Objectives: 1.To determine the prevalence of underweight among the under five children. 2. To assess the factors associated with underweight among them. Methodology: This community based cross sectional study was conducted in the month of March, 2015 among 115 under five children, randomly selected from a peri-urban of Agartala. WHO- weight for age Z-score (WAZ) was used to assess under-weight among the under-five children. Results: The present study revealed that the prevalence of underweight among the children was 33.90%. The gender of the children (p value- 0.01), not going to ICDS centre (p value- 0.04) and parents’ lack of knowledge regarding provision of supplementary nutrition in ICDS center (p value- 0.00) were found to be significant determinants of underweight. Conclusion: Appropriate weaning and feeding practices with utilization of ICDS centre has to be promoted with a special focus on girl children to reduce the burden of underweight in the community.
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