Time spent being malnourished during the first five years of life! An unseen aspect of child malnutrition

Abstract

The burden of malnutrition is often estimated in terms of 'prevalence' without considering two important contributing factors: incidence and duration. To illustrate this, we conducted a community-based retrospective cohort study involving 24,278 children enrolled in an integrated child development scheme in India. Anthropometric data of study participants from birth to five years of age were collected from the growth charts maintained by Anganwadi workers. Of all the growth charts reviewed, 1460 (6.0%) children died before their fifth birthday and 4013 (16.5%) were excluded after initial screening because either the growth chart was incomplete (4.8%) or had missing entries (11.7%). Of the remaining 20,265 children included in the study, in the first five years of their life, 35.6% suffered from exclusive moderate malnourishment and 9.4% from severe malnourishment. The most common age groups for the onset of moderate and severe malnutrition were 9-11 months and 12-15 months, respectively. The mode, median and mean duration of time spent by children being severely underweight was 3, 7 and 8.4 months respectively, and being moderately underweight was 8, 11 and 15.1 months, respectively. Thus, a comprehensive strategy for preventing the onset of malnutrition (both moderate and severe) among children is urgently needed.