An assessment of nutritional status of children aged 0-14 years in a slum area of Kolkata

Abstract

Introduction: Under-nutrition contributes to more than one-third of all deaths in children. It does this by diminishing children's immunity and making illness more dangerous. The primary aim of the study is to assess the nutritional status of children aged from 0 to 14 years in a slum area of Kolkata and secondary aim is to determine the prevalence of under-nutrition and its association with various risk factors among the study population. Materials and Methods: Community-based cross-sectional analytical study was carried out in urban slum of Chetla, Kolkata involving children of age group (0-14 years) from February to May 2012. All children (120) were examined clinically; their anthropometric measurements such as weight, height, mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) were taken using the standard operating procedures, after obtaining verbal consent from their parents with the help of a predesigned and pre-tested schedule. The anthropometric data was analyzed using World Health Organization Anthro and Anthro Plus Softwares. Results: The overall prevalence of under-nutrition among the study population was found to be 54 (45%). Among infants 9 (25%) were underweight, 3 (8.3%) were stunted, 22 (61.1%) were wasted and 23 (63.9%) showed thinness. Among 1-5 years aged children, 18 (30.5%) were underweight, 17 (28.8%) were stunted, 17 (28.8%) were wasted, 12 (20.3%) had MUAC 12.5-13.5 cm and 17 (28.8%) showed thinness. Among 5-14 years aged children, 11 (44%) were underweight, 10 (40%) were stunted and 12 (48%) showed thinness. Conclusion: The nutritional status of children in Chetla slum is not satisfactory in spite of proper immunization coverage and institutional deliveries. Special emphasis should be given for promotion of nutritional education to the mothers.

Undernutrition and Its Correlates among Children of 3–9 Years of Age Residing in Slum Areas of Bhubaneswar, India

“…Taking different indicators of undernutrition into account, wasting (23.3%), stunting (57.4%), and underweight (45.4%), found in the children under study, is unacceptably high. Most studies worldwide have also reported high rates of undernutrition among slum children [8, 13–16]. The results of the present study are consistent with these findings.…”

“…The sample size of 190 was calculated assuming the prevalence of undernutrition as 45% [8], precision of 10% at 95% confidence interval, with a design effect of 2. Multistage cluster random sampling technique was adopted to select the study population.…”

Factors associated With the development of motor proficiency in school children of Kolkata: A cross‐sectional study to assess the role of chronic nutritional and socio‐economic status

“…age (Mandal et al, 2014). The high percentage of stunted children in the surveyed population is particularly concerning in light of our results that support an association between stunting and motor proficiency.…”

“…Kolkata is a major metropolitan city in India whose inhabitants belong to different socio-economic classes. A wide range of chronic undernutrition among 5-12year-old Kolkata school children has been reported (Das, Basu, Dhar, Mallik, & Pal, 2012;Ghosh, Chowdhury, Chandra, & Ghosh, 2015;Mandal, Prabhakar, Pal, Parthasarathi, & Biswas, 2014). There is very limited literature on the relationship between the grades of chronic undernutrition and SES on motor performance, especially in children from developing countries like India.…”