Nutritional Status of Under-five Siblings of Severely Wasted Children in Bhopal

Abstract

To study the prevalence and associated factors of undernutrition in siblings of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). It was a community-based cross-sectional study of under-five year siblings of children with SAM. A total of 128 under-five years siblings were studied, 30% had SAM whereas 20% had moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). More than 7 members in a family (OR=4.23, CI 1.9-9.6, P<0.001), underweight mothers (OR=5.2, CI 2.08-13.0, P<0.001), children who received pre-lacteal feeds (OR=3.24, CI 1.33-7.87, P=0.007), and Muslim religion (OR=4.44, CI 1.78-11.1, P<0.001) were significantly associated with finding of another child with SAM in the family. There was high proportion of severe malnutrition in siblings of children with SAM. Consideration should be given to actively screen all under-5 children in the family of a newly diagnosed child with SAM for undernutrition.