Nutritional Status of Children Among the Age Group of 3-5-Year-Old in the Urban Slums of Delhi

Abstract

Background - In India, 14% of the population is undernourished, according to 'The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2020 report. Further, the Covid-19 situation has increased the risk of a child’s nutrition. With the disruption of Anganwadi services and the Mid-Day Meal (MDM)service delivery system, a large number of children don’t have access to regular, nutritious meals. The overburdening of health systems has impaired service delivery of captious health and nutrition interventions for children. Subsequently, the economic impact of the pandemic has reduced the frequency and quality of meals consumed by households. Methodology- A cross-sectional study is conducted in the slums of the southern region of Delhi involving the children of the age group of 3-5-year-old. Multistage random sampling is done where sampling size is calculated according to the prevalence of malnutrition of 20%. Calculated by formula 4PQ/L2 P=prevalence of malnutrition (taking like 20%), Q= 100-P, L= Allowable error (5%)=4*20*80/5*5=256 children. Inclusion criteria for the children are those who are within the age group of 3-5-year-old and are present at the time of the household visit and are not seriously ill. Exclusion criteria for the children are those who are below 3 years of age and the children with chronic morbidity and suffering from a serious illness. Those families not giving consent. Children in the age group of more than 5 years. Children having cerebral palsy, congenital malformation, HIV infection or any other excluded. Result - Malnutrition is highly prevalent in the study population of the urban slums of Delhi. In the form of both acute and chronic malnutrition. Out of 256 children, 34 per cent of the children are severely underweight, 16 percentage of the children are severely stunted and 24.6 percentage of the children are severely acutely malnourished. 21.1 percentage of the children come in the category of moderately underweight,28.1 percentage of the children comes in the category of stunted,30.5 percentage of the children comes in the category of moderately acute malnourished. Keywords: Malnutrition, Nutritional status of children, urban slums of Delhi