Common morbidities among under-five children in the rural population of district Ghaziabad

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition and morbidities among under-five children is a major public health problem in India.Objective: To assess the morbidity status of children under five years of age in a rural community of District Ghaziabad. Materials and Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted in the villages of district Ghaziabad using multistage simple random sampling technique. The survey was done by using a pretested proforma along with clinical examination and anthropometric measurements of un-der-five children. Analysis was done using MS excel 2013. Results: More than a third of the children had nutritional health problems like Stunting in 36.9% of children, followed by 31.1% underweight and 20% suffered from wasting. Diarrhoea was most common morbidity, accounting for 36.5% children & ARI affected 30.9% of the children. Discussion: Diarrhoea, Acute Respiratory Tract Infection and malnutrition were found to be major morbidities among the children, accounting for around one third of them. Conclusion: Healthy children grow-up to build healthy nation in future. Hence capacity building of parents for early health seeking and strengthening grass root level health workers is essential to act timely in managing these morbidities.