Nutritional status of under five children among Rural and Urban community of East Sikkim

Abstract

Context: Nutrition plays a vital role in growth and development of children. Inadequate nutrition may lead to malnutrition, growth retardation, reduced work capacity and poor mental and social development Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. Overall, under nutrition represents the single largest killer of under-five children, being responsible for 3.1 million child deaths each year (45% of the total 4. under 5 years' deaths)Aims & Objectives: A descriptive, comparative study was conducted with the objectives to assess the nutritional status of under five children: to compare the nutritional status of under five children among rural and urban community and to see the association between the demographic Performa for rural and urban community Methods: The study periods were one year. A total of 150 under five from rural and urban community comprise of the study population. 75 children were from each community. Non-probability purposive sampling was used. Data entry and statistical analysis was performed with the help of SPSS version 2.0. Height –for –age, weight-for-age, and weight-for-height was done using WHO z-Score and mid upper arm circumference was analyse using UNICEF mid upper arm circumference gradingResults: Finding shows that the nutritional status of under-five was found for weight for age in rural community were 62% were Normal, 25.3% were moderately undernourished, 12% were severely under nourished where as 67% were normal, 18.7% were moderately and 5.3% were under nourished. For height for age on rural community were 53% were normal 37.3% were moderately stunting and 9.3% were severe stunting and in urban community 56% were normal, 36% were moderately stunting and 8% were severe stunting. For weight for height on rural community were 53% were normal 37.3% were moderately wasting and 9.3% were severe wasting and in urban community 56% were normal, 36% were moderately wasting and 8% were severe wasting by WHO Z score. For Mid upper arm circumference 78.6% in urban and 72% in rural community were well nourished, 18.7% and 22.7% were moderately under nourished and 2.7% were in rural and 5.3% in urban community were severally acute malnourished and while comparing the nutritional status, we can conclude that the mean score for WAZ (µ=14.22), HAZ (µ=93.09) and MUAC (µ=13.44) for urban and WAZ (µ=13.38), HAZ (µ=90.55) AND MUAC (µ=13.23) for rural community respective standard deviation and with obtained t-value which is not significant. There is no significance difference between rural and urban under-five children with respect to nutritional indicator. However, the nutritional status of Under-five among urban community are certainly better then rural community in comparison with mean score. Conclusions: The major conclusion of the study drawn on the basis of the finding was that the majority of the children from both the communities were normal for their weight for age, height for age, weight for height and mid upper arm circumference, also recognized that there was a difference between nutritional status of children living in rural and urban community.