Profile of under-five malnourished children admitted in a tribal medical college (RIMS) Adilabad, Telangana

Abstract

Introduction: Malnutrition is a major public health problem in a developing country like India, keeping this in mind a study was carried out to, 1). Find the proportion of under five children suffering from malnutrition among the under-five hospitalized children. 2). Find the Epidemiological factors responsible for development of malnutrition. 3). Find co-morbid illnesses associated with malnutrition. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital based cross-sectional study, carried out in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Adilabad, telangana. All under-five children suffering from malnutrition were studied over a period of one month. Results: Total number of under-five children suffering from malnutrition were 170 (83.33%) Moderate & severe/very severe malnutrition was statistically significant in children belongs to Upper-lower class socio-economic status according to modified 2007 KUPPUSWAMY classification.1) Illiteracy & low educational status among mothers.2)Low birth weight (<2.5 kg) babies.3)Children who were not on exclusive breast feeding during their first 6 months of life.4)Children who were on improper complementary feeding practices.5)Low birth spacing.6)High birth order of children.7)Living in tribal & rural area. Malnutrition is also higher in children, whose mothers were anemic (74.11%) during pregnancy & whose mothers are going to field work as daily labours & farmers (65.88%), due to low socio economic status. Among 170 malnourished children, 162(95.29%) were suffering from ANEMIA. Among 170 malnourished cases the major comorbid illness is Diarrheal disease about 117(68.82%). Conclusion:A large proportion of hospitalized children were malnourished, came from rural, tribal & urban slum areas & this malnutrition is mainly because of low socio-economic status, illiteracy & low educational status of mothers, improper breast feeding & improper complementary feeding practices, low birth weight, low birth spacing & high birth order, all these are statistically significant risk factors. And the major co-morbid illness associated with malnutrition is diarrheal illness & anemia