Prevalence of Under-Nutrition Measured by Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) Among the Bhumij Children of Northern Odisha, India

Abstract

Introduction: Under-nutrition continues to be a serious health problem among the children in India. In view of the paucity of recent attempts to classify under-nourished children satisfactorily the Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) has been implemented to measure the seriousness and severity of overall under-nutrition in a population. However, there exists scanty information of the prevalence of under-nutrition among the tribal children of Odisha and India. Therefore the objective of the present study is to evaluate the overall prevalence of under-nutrition among the Bhumij children of Northern Odisha, India.Materials and Methods: A total of 136 Bhumij children aged 1 to 6 years (69 boys and 67 girls) were measured. Children were considered as underweight, stunting and wasting if their weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height Z-scores below -2.0 SD of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference data. Severe under-nutrition was assessed as Z-score below -3.0 SD.Results: The overall age and sex combined prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting recorded was 32.4%, 42.6% and 25% respectively, and these rates were considered as high (30-39%), very high (≥30%) and also very high (≥15%), respectively. CIAF showed a higher prevalence of undernutrition (54.4%) i.e., children suffering from anthropometric failure, in comparison to other three conventional indicators (stunting, underweight and wasting).Conclusions: Therefore various nutritional intervention programs can be formulated to improve the nutritional status of the children. It was established herein that CIAF is a better indicator of nutritional status than traditional measures of stunting, underweight and wasting because it differentiates overall and total anthropometric failure. J Nepal Paediatr Soc 2016;36(1):61-67

Prevalence and correlates of the composite index of anthropometric failure among children under 5 years old in Bangladesh

“…One community-based study conducted in Bangladesh reported that 48% of rural and 58% of urban area children have undernutrition (Khan & Raza, 2014). This prevalence of CIAF was higher in many developing countries including India (Boregowda, Soni, Jain, & Agrawal, 2015;Dasgupta et al, 2015), Ethiopia (Endris, Asefa, & Dube, 2017), and Nepal (Goswami, 2016) and lower in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, and Peru (Nandy & Miranda, 2008) than the estimate of current study. This study revealed that the undernutrition status was higher among the children when they live in rural settings, if they are in the poorest socio-economic position, if they did not receive any vaccinations, and if they are the firstborn.…”

Socio-economic inequality in anthropometry failure in children under 5 years in India: Evidence from the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey 2016–18

“…The overall prevalence of CIAF was reported as 48.1%, which was in line with the estimates reported by studies conducted in Assam and Bangladesh 26,27 . However, studies conducted in states of Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh reported higher prevalence of CIAF [28][29][30] . Similarly, studies conducted in Ethiopia 31 and Nepal 29 reported higher prevalence, whereas studies from Zimbabwe and Peru reported lower prevalence of CIAF 32 .…”

Magnitude and severity of anthropometric failure among children under two years using Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) and WHO standards

“…CIAF among preschool children shows prevalence ranging from 26% in Kashmir [18], to 73% in West Bengal [15]. Recent evidence shows > 50% prevalence of anthropometric failure raising public health concern [[19], [20], [21]]. High prevalence of anthropmetric failure indicates simultaneous coexistance of acute and chronic forms of undernutrition in this critical group.…”